Fruiting body production in basidiomycetes

Mushroom cultivation presents an economically important biotechnological in dustry that has markedly expanded all over the world in the past few decade s. Mushrooms serve as delicacies for human consumption and as nutriceutical s, as "food that also cures". Mushrooms, the fruiting bodies of basidiomyce tous fungi, contain substances of various kinds that are highly valued as m edicines, flavourings and perfumes. Nevertheless, the biological potential of mushrooms is probably far from exploited. A major problem up to now is t hat only a few species can be induced to fruit in culture. Our current know ledge on the biological processes of fruiting body initiation and developme nt is limited and arises mostly from studies of selected model organisms th at are accessible to molecular genetics. A better understanding of the deve lopmental processes underlying fruiting in. these model organisms is expect ed to help mushroom cultivation of other basidiomycetes in the future.