Isolation of Bacteria Associated with the King Oyster Mushroom, Pleurotus eryngii

Eight distinct bacteria were isolated form diseased mycelia of the edible mushroom, Pleurotus eryngii. 16S rDNA sequence analysis showed that the isolates belonged to a variety of bacterial genera including Bacillus (LBS5), Enterobacter (LBS1), Sphingomonas (LBS8 and LBS10), Staphylococcus (LBS3, LBS4 and LBS9) and Moraxella (LBS6). Among them, 4 bacterial isolates including LBS1, LBS4, LBS5, and LBS9 evidenced growth inhibitory activity on the mushroom mycelia. The inhibitory activity on the growth of the mushroom fruiting bodies was evaluated by the treatment of the bacterial culture broth or the heat-treated cell-free supernatant of the broth. The treatment of the culture broths or the cell-free supernatants of LBS4 or LBS9 completely inhibited the formation of the fruiting body, thereby suggesting that the inhibitory agent is a heat-stable compound. In the case of LBS5, only the bacterial cell-containing culture broth was capable of inhibiting the formation of the fruiting body, whereas the cell-free supernatant did not, which suggests that an inhibitory agent generated by LBS5 is a protein or a heat-labile chemical compound, potentially a fungal cell wall-degrading enzyme. The culture broth of LBS1 was not inhibitory. However, its cell-free supernatant was capable of inhibiting the formation of fruiting bodies. This indicates that LBS1 may produce an inhibitory heat-stable chemical compound which is readily degraded by its own secreted enzyme.