Poria, the dried sclerotium of Wolfiporia cocos, is a medicinal mushroom that is widely used in traditional Japanese medicine. The fruit body of W. cocos is rarely found in the natural environment in Japan, therefore an optimized technique for fruit body formation is essential for producing new strains through crossbreeding and for biological research. Here, we developed a cultivation technique for fruit body formation of W. cocos using three strains collected from different areas of Japan. When mycelia were cultured on sawdust-based medium after liquid medium culture, all strains successfully formed fruit bodies as a brown honeycomb-like structure. Furthermore, we analyzed single nucleotide polymorphisms of the three strains using the STE3-like pheromone receptor protein gene, STE3.2, and found a genetic marker for discriminating one strain from the others. The results are expected to promote extensive studies on crossbreeding and domestic production of W. cocos.

茯苓（ Wolfiporia cocos ）的干燥菌核，是一种广泛用于日本传统医学的药用蘑菇。W. cocos的子实体在日本的自然环境中很少见，因此优化子实体形成技术对于通过杂交培育新菌株和进行生物学研究至关重要。在这里，我们开发了一种用于形成W. cocos子实体的栽培技术使用从日本不同地区收集的三种菌株。当菌丝体在液体培养基培养后在锯末培养基上培养时，所有菌株均成功形成子实体，呈棕色蜂窝状结构。此外，我们使用 STE3 样信息素受体蛋白基因 STE3.2 分析了三种菌株的单核苷酸多态性，并找到了区分一种菌株与其他菌株的遗传标记。研究结果有望促进对椰树杂交育种和国内生产的广泛研究。