The present investigation has been done to develop an improved low cost in-vitro culture protocol for large-scale mycelium growth possessing the ability to bear fruiting bodies, important for artificial cultivation of Ganoderma lucidum. Ganoderma lucidum (Fr.) P. Karst is one of the most popular mushrooms in traditional Chinese medicine (TMC) which has a long fascinating history dating back over two thousand years in China. Besides infrastructure and raw material, healthy vegetative mycelial culture is required to produce quality spawn. In the proposed study, in-vitro propagation of the pure culture of G.lucidum is done on potato dextrose (PDA), Oatmeal agar, and Wheat extract agar slant in culture tubes. For better commercial viability, four groups of Ganoderma Lucidum culture for each of the media were prepared. These groups were inoculated through a sample of mother culture obtained from NRCM, Solan. Group 1 was inoculated by mycelium of mother culture tube, group-2 was inoculated with mycelium as well as spores of fruiting body, group -3 was inoculated by spores of mother culture tubes as well as spores from another sample. It means we started with two sample of culture tubes. The produced cCulture tubes were subjected to incubation for 10 to 14 days in aseptic condi ions at 320 -350 C to achieve a good mycelial growth. It was found that the group-4 culture could produce a fruiting body after transplantation on sterilized substrate prepared for artificial GL cultivation. Further, PDA was observed to be the most suitable culture media for the propagation of Ganoderma lucidum. After experiment on the different groups and evaluations based on the standard metrics, spore of different strains has been found most suitable for commercial viable production of GL fruiting body.

Keywords : Ganoderma lucidum, (PDA) Potato dextrose Agar, Dikaryon, heterothallic, Oatmeal agar, Wheat extract agar.