Coprinopsis neophlyctidospora sp. nov. (Basidiomycota, Agaricales), collected in urea treated soil of boreal forests from Canada is described and illustrated. Its micromorphological features, phylogenetic analysis, and mating test delineate this taxon as a new species. In addition, its ecological characters also indicate it is a new ammonia fungus.

This study attempts to analyze the current scenario of the mushroom enterprise in Nepal. The study provides insights on its future prospects as a major agro-industry. It also explores issues and challenges facing the Nepalese's mushroom industry by using a critical and SWOT analysis. Though, Nepal has all the requisites of low-cost labor, favorable climatic conditions, plentiful cheap supply of raw substrates, spawns and other inputs to become a leading mushroom producer. The industry is still in the state of infancy. The main challenges include inadequate scientific research on mushrooms; lack of adoption of improved technology, insufficient investment; unstable farm-gate prices and profit margins, poor supply and the increasing price of raw material e.g., rice straw; the poor quality of mushroom spawn, and the threat of diseases and pests attack. Several strategies are also presented here to improve the mushroom enterprise in Nepal.

Emerging viral infections such as the zika virus, dengue virus, ebola virus, corona virus are afflicting millions of human populations worldwide. Therefore, the development of new treatments against emerging infectious diseases has become an urgent task. The availability of commercially viable, safe, and effective antiviral drugs still remains a big challenge. Mushrooms are considered as an untapped reservoir of several novel compounds of great value in industry and medicine. Although exploration, and exploitation of the therapeutic importance of fungal metabolites has started early with the discovery of penicillin, mushrooms’s pharmacological potential has much less been investigated. This article briefly reviews the antiviral potentials of mushrooms to combat deadly disease outbreaks caused by emerging and re-emerging viruses. Altogether 69 mushroom species with potent antiviral agents and mode of action against prominent viruses such as human immunodeficiency virus, influenza, herpes simplex virus, hepatitis B and C viruses, corona viruses etc. are listed in this study. Further studies are encouraged to discover more novel potent antiviral agents or evaluate already known compounds from those mushrooms with clinical trials.

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Effects of pH, NH 4 -N, and temperature on basidiospore germination in Coprinopsis austrophlyctidospora from New Zealand, C. phlyctidospora from Japan, C. aff. rugosobispora from Canada, and C. echinospora from Canada were investigated. The Coprinopsis spp. required the presence of ammonium-nitrogen under weak alkaline to neutral conditions for germination, regardless of their different areas of occurrence. The former two species had a wider concentration of NH 4 Cl solution and pH range for germination in comparison to the latter two species. The optimum concentration of NH 4 Cl solution for the germination was 0.01 M in C. austrophlyctidospora and 0.1 M in the other three species. The pH optimum for germination in the former two species was 8.0 whereas that for germination in the latter two species was 8.0-8.5. The temperature range (5.0-40.0°C) for the former two species was wider than that (5-30°C) for the latter two species. Temperature optima for the germination in the former two species, C. aff. rugosobispora and C. echinospora, were 30, 20-25 and 15°C, respectively. The germination abilities of these Coprinopsis species in a wide range of temperatures are relevant to their natural temperature regime, showing their potential ability to propagate in tropical to subarctic regions.