Mushrooms are widely appreciated all over the world for their nutritional value and medicinal properties. They have low fat, high protein and vitamins contents. Mushrooms contain several minerals and trace elements, as well as substantial amount of dietary fibers. Basidiomycetes mushrooms (phylum Basidiomycota) including agaric and bracket fungi are also producers of bioactive molecules and val...

We expect that sexual selection may play an important role in the evolution of mushroom-forming basidiomycete fungi. Although these fungi do not have separate sexes, they do play female and male roles: the acceptance and the donation of a nucleus, respectively. The primary mycelium (monokaryon) of basidiomycete fungi, growing from a germinating sexual spore, is hermaphroditic, but it loses fema...

A total of 103 isolates of basidiomycetes, representing 84 species from different Brazilian ecosystems, were evaluated for their antifungal and antibacterial activity in a panel of pathogenic and non-pathogenic microorganisms. Tissue plugs of the fruiting bodies were cultivated in liquid media and the whole culture extracted with ethyl acetate. Crude extracts from Agaricus cf. nigrecentulus, Ag...

Three resupinate basidiomycetes from Hawai‘i with toothed hymenophores are described and illustrated. Phlebia acanthocystis is a newly described taxon that has cystidia with apical pegs or spines. The new combination Phlebia subfascicularis is proposed for Acia subfascicularis, originally described from Australia. Mycoacia kurilensis, described from the Kuril Islands, is reported from Hawai‘i f...