Emir. J. Food Agric ● Vol 29 ● Issue 12 ● 2017 927 Production of hybrid strains among Pleutorus and Lentinula and evaluation of their mycelial growth kinetics on malt extract agar and wheat grain using the Gompertz and Hill models Juan Diego Valenzuela Cobos 1 , Enrique Durán Páramo 1 , Ramón Villanueva Arce 1 , María Eugenia Garín Aguilar 2 , Abraham Sánchez Hernández 1 , Hermilo Leal Lara 3 , Gustavo Valencia del Toro 1 * 1 Laboratorio de Cultivos Celulares de la Sección de Estudios de Posgrado e Investigación. UPIBI, Instituto Politécnico Nacional. Barrio la Laguna s/n Ticomán. Ciudad de México CP 07340, México, 2 Laboratorio de Farmacobiología de la Facultad de Estudios Superiores Iztacala, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Av de los Barrios No.1. Los Reyes Iztacala, Tlalnepantla CP 54090. Edo. de México, México. 3 Departamento de Alimentos y Biotecnología, Facultad de Química, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Cd. Universitaria, 04510 Mexico D.F INTRODUCTION The production of new edible mushroom strains is restricted due to incompatibility barrier, in some cases hybrid strains are produced through mating compatible neohaplonts recovered by chemical dedikaryotization. This process allows the recovery of the two monokaryotic components from a dikaryon (Leal- Lara and Eger-Hummel, 1982) by using toxic substances such as sodium taurocholate, colic acid, peptone or glucose (Miles and Raper, 1956). The mushrooms with more production in the world are: 1) Agaricus (30%); 2) Pleurotus spp. (27%); Lentinula edodes Three inter-generic hybrid strains were obtained by pairing compatible neohaplonts recovered by dedikaryotization of four parental strains, i.e. Pleurotus ostreatus (CC060), Pleurotus djamor (CC051) and Lentinula edodes (CC003 and CC004). Fifteen neohaplonts were recovered employing homogenization time periods for Pleurotus spp. since 60 to 90 s, and for Lentinula edodes strains time periods ranged from 5 to 20 s, and incubation at 28 °C in a peptone-glucose solution (PGS). The mycelial growth of the parental and hybrid strains was determined on malt extract agar (MEA) and wheat grain by calculating the parameters A, B and C of nonlinear regression models. For the parameter A, the mycelial growth on MEA showed values ranged from 1.08 to 1.28, and for the parameter B since 5.65 to 20.85. On the other hand, the A values by mycelium growth on wheat grain ranged from 1.57 to 16.13, for B since 28.36 to 86.53 and for C were in an interval from 11.89 to 44.24. Parental and hybrid strains presented instantaneous velocity values on MEA since 2.88 to 7.26 cm 2 •day -1 , whereas on wheat grain were in an interval from 5.45 to 10.05 cm 3 •day -1 . Furthemore, the µ max values on MEA and wheat grain were calculated by using the Gompertz model and the λ values on both medium were estimated by using the Hill model, the µ max values on MEA ranged from 0.26 to 1.69 day -1 and λ values in an interval from 0.41 to 2.74, whereas the µ max values on wheat grain ranged from 0.05 to 0.43 day -1 and λ since 1.82 to 28 h. Moreover, the estimated equations based on nonlinear models were used to calculate the µ max values on MEA and wheat grain of the strains and the λ values were obtained by using the µ max values of the proposed equations on the Hill model, the µ max values on MEA ranged from 0.44 to 1.27 day -1 andthe λ values between 0.57 to 1.72 h, while the µ max values on wheat grain ranged from 0.04 to 0.64 day -1 and λ values in an interval from 1.26 to 20.11 h. The results evidenced that the hybrid strains of PleurotusxLentinula presented highest rate of growth in comparison with the parental, encouraging the production of hybrid strain and their use in the industrial feld. Keywords: Dedikaryotization; Mycelium growth; Mushroom; Neohaplonts; Strains ABSTRACT Emirates Journal of Food and Agriculture. 2017. 29(12): 927-935 doi: 10.9755/ejfa.2017.v29.i12.1563 http://www.ejfa.me/ REGULAR ARTICLE *Corresponding author: Gustavo Valencia del Toro, Laboratorio de Cultivos Celulares de la Sección de Estudios de Posgrado e Investigación. UPIBI, Instituto Politécnico Nacional. Barrio la Laguna s/n Ticomán. Ciudad de México CP 07340, México. E-mail: gvovaltor@yahoo.com.mx Received: 29 April 2017; Revised: 01 December 2017; Accepted: 05 December 2017; Published Online: 11 December 2017