GROWING GOURMET - Anto2ni.it

S terile
CHAPTER 11
Mind and Methods for
Mushroom Culture
tissue culture has revolutionized the biological sciences.
For the first time in the history of human evolution, select organisms
can be isolated from nature, propagated under sterile conditions
in the laboratory, and released back into the environment. Since a
competitor-free environment does not exist naturally on this planet*,
an artificial setting is created—the laboratory—in which select organisms
can be grown in mass.
Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) pioneered sterile technique by recognizing
that microorganisms are killed by heat, most effectively by
steam or boiling water. Tissue culture of one organism—in absence
of competitors—became possible for the first time. By the early 1900's
growing organisms in pure culture became commonplace. Concur-
rently, several researchers discovered that mushroom mycelium could
be grown under sterile conditions. However, the methods were not
always successful. Without benefit of basic equipment, efforts were
confounded by high levels of contamination and only after considerable
effort was success seen. Nevertheless, methods slowly evolved
through trial and error.
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