Improved production of polysaccharides in Ganoderma lingzhi mycelia by plasma mutagenesis and rapid screening of mutated strains through infrared spectroscopy

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 13; no. 9; p. e0204266
• Main Authors: Ma, Yuhan, Zhang, Qianqian, Zhang, Qifu, He, Huaqi, Chen, Zhu, Zhao, Yan, Wei, Da, Kong, Mingguang, Huang, Qing
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 21.09.2018; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Agriculture; Atmospheric pressure; Biology; Biology and Life Sciences; Biomass; Deoxyribonucleic acid; Dielectric barrier discharge; DNA; Fermentation; Fourier transforms; Ganoderma; Ganoderma - genetics; Ganoderma - metabolism; Genetic aspects; Genetic engineering; Health sciences; Herbal medicine; Infrared spectroscopy; Laboratories; Magnetic fields; Medical research; Mushrooms; Mutagenesis; Mutants; Mycelia; Mycelium - chemistry; Mycelium - metabolism; Physiological aspects; Plasma Gases; Polysaccharides; Polysaccharides - analysis; Polysaccharides - metabolism; Protoplasts; Random amplified polymorphic DNA; Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA Technique; Research and Analysis Methods; Saccharides; Scientific research; Screening; Spectrophotometry, Infrared; Spectroscopy; Spectrum analysis; Toxicology; Traditional Chinese medicine; China
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0204266

As a traditional Chinese medicine, Ganoderma lingzhi has attracted increasing attention for both scientific research and medical application. In this work, in order to improve the production of polysaccharides from an original wide-type (WT) strain (named "RWY-0") of Ganoderma lingzhi, we applied atmospheric-pressure dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) nonthermal plasma to the protoplasts of RWY-0 for mutagenesis treatment. Through a randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) assay, at least 10 mutagenic strains were confirmed. They also showed different mycelium characteristics in terms of shape, color, size and biomass in liquid fermentation. The mutant strains were examined by infrared spectroscopy, and based on the established near-infrared (NIR) quantification model, the polysaccharide contents in these mutants were quantitatively evaluated. As a result, we found that the Ganoderma polysaccharide contents in some of the mutant strains were significantly changed compared with that of the original WT strain. The polysaccharide content of RWY-1 G. lingzhi was considerably higher than that of the WT strain, with an increase of 25.6%. Thus, this preliminary work demonstrates the extension of the plasma mutagenesis application in acquiring polysaccharide-enhanced Ganoderma lingzhi mutants and shows the usefulness of NIR spectroscopy in the rapid screening of mutagenic strains for other important ingredients.