Volume 12 Part 2 Article 28
Title: The Effects of Common Nutritionally-Important Cations on the Growth and Development of the Cultivated Mushroom Lentinula edodes
Authors: G.F. Leatham and M.A. Stahmann
Cations are essential to living organisms. Their importance is evident by the diversity of their functions and by the large expenditure of energy needed to drive their transport (Slayman, 1985). K is the major monovalent cation, osmotically active cation, and cellular electrolyte (Hutner, 1972; Eddy, 1958). In fungi and yeasts, K often functions in the transport of divalent cations (Eddy, 1978), sugars (Slayman and Slayman, 1974; Allayway and Jennings, 1970), amino acids (Seaston et al., 1973) and water (Jones and pollard, 1983). The major divalent cation in living organisms is Mg . Like many other cations (e.g. Ca, Mn, Zn, Fe and Cu), Mg generally functions as an enzyme co-factor. Ca typically has important regulatory roles in eukaryotes (Rasmussen, 1970; Carafoli and Crompton, 1978; Pitt and Ugalde, 1984; Veigl et al., 1984). However, relatively little is known about the effect of these important cations on the growth and development of commercially-important fungi.Please login to download the PDF for this proceeding.