ABSTRACT
The essential feature of any breeding programme is the bringing together of desired traits possessed by two different individuals. Breeding programmes will also include the creation and selection of desired traits, but it is the assembling in one individual stock of the best combination of genetic material for the production of mushrooms of high quality and yield that is the goal of the mushroom breeder. To accomplish this the breeder must have a thorough knowledge of the basic biology and breeding system of the mushroom species which he is trying to improve. In this chapter the basic biology of fungi will be examined with an emphasis upon cultivated edible species.
