About Fungus/Mushroom Resource and Research Center
Fungus/Mushroom Resource and Research Center (FMRC) in affiliation with the Faculty of Agriculture was established in 2005, when the Japan Kinoko Research Center Foundation donated a big culture collection of fungal cultures. Since then, FMRC has been collecting fungal cultures mainly of mushroom forming fungi as a specific culture bank. As of February 2016, 8,387 strains of 1,465 species were maintained by putting TUFC (Tottori University Fungal Culture Collection) No. The number of preserved strains is increasing.
FMRC has been focusing on the “mushrooms” among the fungi as the generic biological resources to promote various researches from basic to applied science based on TUFC cultures. At April 2013, FMRC reorganized 14 members into five research divisions to strengthen research activities of FMRC and also educational systems to train persons for ‘Fungus Genetic Resources Science’. |
History of FMRC
| January 17, 2005 | The Preparatory Committee of the establishment of FMRC was inaugurated within the Faculty of Agriculture. |
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| March 23, 2005 | An Agreement was made concerning the establishment of the Division of Applied Research as a division of the center thanks to support from Tottori Prefecture. |
| March 23, 2005 | An agreement relating to a research partnership was made with The Tottori Mycological Institute of the Japan Kinoko Research Centre Foundation concerning the transfer of world-class macrofungus genetic resources (about 1,000 species, 10,000 strains) and collaboration of researchers. |
| April 1, 2005 | FMRC was established. FMRC started with three divisions: the Division of Environmental Ecology, the Division of Molecular Genetics and the Division of Applied Research (Contribution Division) |
| July 15, 2005 | The commemorative ceremony of establishing FMRC celebrations were held. |
| March 27, 2006 | An agreement on collaborative research was made with the Japan Kinoko Research Center Foundation |
| April 1, 2006 | The “Division of Genetic Resource Preservation and Evaluation” was established as the fourth division in FMRC. |
| March 19, 2007 | As part of the facilities improvement project in the university, the block of FMRC in affiliation with the Faculty of Agriculture was completed, and an Inauguration Ceremony was held. |
| February 21, 2008 | A joint debriefing session concerning research achievements called “The forefront of the bird flu research and mushroom research” was held in the Tottori Residents’ Cultural Hall. |
| April 1, 2008 | In accordance with the termination of the support from the Tottori Prefecture that had lasted for three years from 2005, two full-time academic staffs were employed in the Division of Applied Research, and the research system was comprised of five full-time and three concurrent academic staffs. |
| June 18, 2008 | “Advanced Utilization of Fungus/Mushroom Resources for Sustainable Society in Harmony with Nature” in which all the staffs of the center participated was adopted as a Global COE Program by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in 2008. |
| September 1, 2009 | Two of limited-time academic staffs were employed to promote researches in Global COE Program, and the research system was comprised of five full-time and three concurrent academic staffs. |
| March 30, 2011 | FMRC Building #2 was completed. |
| Jun 11, 2012 | TUFC Cultures Online Catalogue was released and distribution service of TUFC collections was started (restricted in Japan). A completion ceremony of a new building of FMRC Building #3 was performed. |
| April 1, 2013 | Two Assistant Professors (project research staffs) were joined and FMRC was reorganized into five research divisions. |
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