Mushrooms occupy an important position in the ecosystem formed on our earth as fungi. Fungi degrade organic matter in animal waste products and plant litter into inorganic matter. Through this process, fungi get energy for their survival, set up the carbon and nitrogen cycles, and help keep our environment (soil) clean. On the other hand, from ancient times, eating mushrooms has been considered healthy. This is due to the fact that mushrooms provide a low calorie diet and contain abundant dietary fibers, a combination of which helps prevent intestinal disorders and serve to lower the cholesterol in our blood.Moreover, mushrooms have been employed as a “medicine”.
In particular, polysaccharides derived from their cell wall have been reported to have anti-tumor activity and has been practically used as a form of medical treatment in Japan.Therefore, mushrooms strongly connect with our life and are valuable organisms for scientific study and research.

Academically, fungal research has focused on specific aspects of the organism. These include i) studies on fruiting body formation from mycelium for productivity advancement or expansion of edible species, ii) use of mushroom not only as nutritional food but as functional food for human health, and iii) use in degradation of xenobiotics for improvement of polluted environment or reuse of untapped recourses. With this background, and our interest on the mushrooms from the food functionality and medicinal viewpoints, we have embarked on a molecular level investigation.

Proteins are important to study as they have diverse functions in the cell and are essential components involved in life activity of an organism from the cradle to the grave. Moreover, proteins are dynamic, some are constitutively expressed, and others are only expressed at specific time or conditions during the life cycle. It may be suggested that total proteins profiles and their expression amount reflect on the life stage of the organism.