B. Papp szerk.: Studia Botanica Hungarica 29. 1998 (Budapest, 1999)
Vasas, Gizella, Bohus, Gábor; Locsmándi, Csaba: Genetic resource collection of macrofungi in Hungary
Studia bot. hung. 29, pp. 17-34, 1998 (1999) GENETIC RESOURCE COLLECTION OF MACROFUNGI IN HUNGARY G. VASAS 1 , G. BOHUS 1 and Cs. LOCSMÁNDI 2 ] Dept. Botany, Hungarian Natural History Museum, H-1476 Budapest, Pf. 222, Hungary MikoszféraLtd., H-l 107 Budapest, Bihari u. 3/C,fsz. I, Hungary At the present time the most suitable method for long-term preservation of fungus cultures is the storage in liquid nitrogen at -196 °C. The maintenance of fungus cultures by cryogenic freezing technique eliminates the risk of traditional methods and prevents genetic damage of the material preserved in living state. The authors report about the establishing of the culture collections of macrofungi at the Department of Botany of the Hungarian Natural History Museum. These culture collections serve as depository for several species of floristical and economical importance (163 taxa, 315 isolates). Key words: cryopreservation, genetic resource collection, Hungary, liquid nitrogen, macrofungi INTRODUCTION Biodiversity crisis is a well-known worldwide phenomenon, thus the maintenance of biodiversity, preserving the genetic resources of living organisms became highly important also in Hungary. The increasing environmental pollution (air and water pollution, chemicals, etc.) influences also the environment of macrofungi, decreasing their chances of survival. In addition to the environmental damages, the excessive gathering of young fruiting bodies of some edible mushrooms of commercial importance (e.g. Boletus edulis, B. aestivalis, Cantharellus cibarius, Amanita caesarea) might reduce considerably the number of individuals. Opinions of mycologists vary in this respect (RIMÓCZI 1997). One of the traditional practices to prevent extinction of species is to compile red lists of the rare and endangered species and to designate those for official protection. Several proposals on the macrofungi of Hungary were published recently (SILLER and VASAS 1993, 1995, RlMÓCZl 1997), thus a number of macrofungi are expected to be registered in the next Hungarian Red Data Book. In addition to the traditional nature conservational methods, another, necessary way to preserve the individual fungus species under laboratory conditions as cultures. A relatively unexpensive, long-term and safe (damage-free) maintenance method of pure mycelium cultures is possible by a recently used method, called cryopreservation (see below).
