Morchella: Innovative Mushrooms from Forests to Farms, Then to Our Tables

Dear Colleagues,

Morels are mushroom-forming macrofungi in the Morchella genus that are highly prized for their desirable aroma, delicious taste, and tender texture. Having a long history of food and medicinal applications in both Eastern and Western cultures, morels are consumed globally, contributing to a remarkable industry. Morels were once only wild-foraged from forests, shrubs, and grasslands, but several species (e.g., Morchella importuna, M. sextelata, M. eximia, and M. rufobrunnea) have been domesticated, with it becoming feasible to cultivate them artificially in substrate beds of soil or compost in recent decades. The scale of commercialized morel cultivation is expanding very rapidly not only in China but also in other countries, including the USA, France, Turkey, and Australia. While the innovative morel industry is thriving all over the world, several problems are always hampering its sustainable development, including a lack of cultivars with improved performances; a the technologies for stable and high yields still being underdeveloped; a lack of food processing technologies to elongate the shell life being prominent; the elucidation of the chemical constitution with healthy effects; and diversified and value-added morel products.

You may choose our Joint Special Issue in Journal of Fungi.

Prof. Dr. Qi Zhao
Dr. Wei Liu
Prof. Dr. Hao Tan
Dr. Xi-Hui Du
Guest Editors

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• wild morel germplasm
• morphology and cell biology
• phylogenetics
• mating type
• breeding report of morel cultivar
• genome and mitogenome
• functional gene
• transcriptional factor
• genetics and epigenetics
• gene editing
• microbial physiology and biochemistry related to morel cultivation
• transcriptome, proteome, and metabolome
• soil microbial ecology of morel mycosphere
• continuous cropping obstacle
• identification of morel pathogens
• biocontrol of morel pathogens
• metabolites and bioactive compounds in morel fruiting-bodies
• processing of morel products
• food safety
• pesticides
• pesticide residues
• heavy metals