Biochemical Evaluation of Agaricus and Pleurotus Strains in Batch Cultures for Production Optimization of Valuable Metabolites

The production of various biochemical compounds such as proteins, glucans and glucanases, from the mycelium of four strains of Basidiomycetes species, Agaricus bisporus, Agaricus subrufescens, Pleurotus eryngii and Pleurotus ostreatus, during batch culture in shaking flasks, was studied. Fungi were cultured for 26 days in defined media with glucose as carbon source and were primarily evaluated for their ability to consume glucose and produce mycelial mass and intracellular polysaccharides (IPS). Results showed that on the 26th day of cultivation, P. ostreatus produced the maximum biomass (16.75 g/L), whereas P. eryngii showed the maximum IPS concentration (3.82 g/L). All strains presented a similar pattern in total protein production, with A. bisporus having the highest percentage of total proteins (36%, w/w). The calculated correlation coefficients among ribonucleic acid (RNA) vs. biomass (0.97) and RNA vs. protein (0.97) indicated a very strong relation between RNA and biomass/protein synthesis. The studied strains exhibited an increase in total glucan and glucanase (β-1,6) production during cultivation, with A. bisporus reaching the highest glucan percentage (8%, w/w) and glucanase activity (12.7 units/g biomass). Subsequently, processed analytical data were used in contour-graph analysis for data extrapolation to optimize future continuous culture.