Mushrooms native to Iran: Opportunities and challenges for therapeutic and pharmaceutical research

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVESWild mushrooms have long been appreciated for their nutritional and medicinal properties. Although the number of mushrooms species grown commercially are very limited, there are at least ۱۴,۰۰۰ taxonomically known wild mushroom species worldwide. Various studies have also reported the occurrence of wild macrofungal taxa in Iran, especially in temperate forests. This review addresses the opportunities and challenges of working with Iranian wild mushrooms.MATERIALS AND METHODSThe basic data presented here are the consolidated published findings of about ۱۰ years of experimental research on Iranian wild mushrooms at ACECR-Khorasan Razavi Branch.RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONAccurate authentication of collected wild mushrooms, preserving pure mycelia, and if applicable, adopting into locally available lignocellulosic substrates (to produce fruiting bodies) are essential to ensure access to fungal materials and ensure reliability and reproducibility for further biomedical, biochemical, and omics studies. Domesticated wild mushrooms may also promote further commercial-scale production of edible fruiting bodies and their use in the food industry. Based on the afore-mentioned strategy, our efforts have led to collection of over ۱۰۰ Iranian wild mushroom species, which have been well-authenticated and deposited on Genebank. Apart from applicable findings on growth characteristics of these wild mushrooms in different lignocellulosic substrates, we have shown their antimicrobial, anticancer, antioxidant and immunmodulatory activities, and nanoparticles biosynthesis capabilities both in vitro and in vivo. Extraction, purification, structural characterization, and proximate analysis approaches have also been established. In particular, we have investigated the differences in the linear and spatial structure of betaglucans between wild and commercial Enoki mushrooms. However, there are still limitations and challenges. Apparently, many Iranian wild mushrooms in our biobank remain unexplored. It also appears that successive cultivation of domesticated wild mushrooms in artificial substrates (rather than in their natural habitat) can lose their ability to produce secondary metabolites required to defense against pathogens. Extensive research has been done on metabolomics and, to a lesser extent, proteomics. Nevertheless, information on changes at genes and mRNA levels is very limited.CONCLUSIONIranian wild mushrooms can be considered a valuable source of novel bioactive lead compounds. However, multidisciplinary and in-depth studies are required to reveal their potency in the healthcare and the food industry.

کلیدواژه ها:

Iranian wild mushrooms ، authentication ، domestication ، nutritional and medicinal properties ، omics ،