Objective  As an edible and medicinal fungus, Agaricus blazei Murrill is prone to accumulate heavy metals such as cadmium in production, resulting in excessive cadmium and other heavy metals. Breeding new varieties of Agaricus blazei Murrill with low cadmium and high quality is a scientific research target of great concern in the industry.

  Methods  The J1 cultivar of A. blazei was exposed to ⁶⁰Co radiation to obtain J37. The main agronomic traits, yield, and contents of amino acids, cadmium, lead, arsenic, and mercury in fruitarian bodies of J1 and J37 in the 1st to 4th tides were systematically compared. The effects of different growth algebras on fruitbody yield of Agaricus blazei Murrill J1 and J37 were also observed.

  Result  (1) The flower weight, cover weight, cover thickness, cover diameter, cover height, stem weight, stem diameter and other agronomic traits of new strain J37 were significantly or extremely significantly higher than those of control (J1), while stem length was significantly lower than that of J1, and essential amino acid content was extremely significantly higher than that of J1; (2) Compared with J1, the yield of J37 in 1-6 generation (M1-6) was higher than that of J1, and the growth rate of fruite body yield in M1, M2, M3, M4, M5 and M6 generations of J37 was 30.11%, 33.58%, 39.46%, 39.45%, 34.14% and 33.53%, respectively, higher than that of J1. The difference reached extremely significant level; (3) Compared with J1, the contents of CD, Pb, Hg and AS in J37 fruite body decreased by 48.09%, 58.57%, 26.03% and 75.26%, respectively, and the differences were extremely significant. f A. blazei. The irradiation treatment appeared to have a potential for mushroom breeding.

  Conclusion  The new agaricus blazei strain J37 showed good yield, high quality and safety.