Establishment of cultivating strategy for highly aggregated mycelia of Morchella esculenta in a stirred-tank bioreactor.

Mycelia of Morchella esculenta were found to aggregate rapidly in a submerged culture, which caused the decrease in dispersed mycelia and the problem of diffusion limitation. The effect of different agitation schemes on the growth of mycelia was investigated in a stirred-tank bioreactor. At the constant speed of 100 or 300 rpm, rapid aggregation caused the biomass concentration to drop to zero in 30 h, which was even worse than achieved under static culture.