Research Groups | The Mushroom R&D Department | Dr. Ofer Danai

Personal:

Status: Married + 3 children

Home Address: Mitzpeh Hila 24953 Israel
Fax; 972-4-9572114 e-mail: danay@migal.org.il
Work Address: Migal ( Kiryat Shmona );
POB 90000; Rosh Pinna 12100 Israel
Fax; 972-4-6944980;
e-mail : ofer@migal.org.il

University Education and Additional Training:

• 1978-1981
  B.Sc. in Agriculture, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, faculty of Agriculture, Rehovot, Israel.
• 1981-1982
  M.Sc. in Plant Pathology and Microbiology, The Hebrew University of  Jerusalem, faculty of Agriculture, Rehovot, Israel Thesis: The suitability of Pleurotus florida as a new crop in Israel. Supervisor: Prof. I. Chet and  Prof. Y. Henis
• 1990-1998
  Ph.D in Plant Pathology and Microbiology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, faculty of Agriculture, Rehovot, Israel Thesis: The effect of light on the morphogenesis of Pleurotus spp.
  Supervisors: Profs. Y. Hadar and I. Chet, Dr. D. Levanon.

Positions held and academic status

• 1982 Member of research team on Mushrooms in Migal - Galilee Technological Center and R & D North as Director of Mushroom Project.
• 1990 Israel Ministry of Agriculture Mission to El Salvador.
• 1990 Guest Lecturer of Div. of External Studies in Course for Tropical Developing Countries, Faculty of Agriculture, Hebrew University.
• 1991 Mushroom group manager in the Northern R&D.
• 1995 Director, Research and Development Project for Highland
   Agriculture (Northern R&D).
• 1998 Project manager, Development of methods for mushroom cultivation in   rural India- sponsored by GIFRID
• 1999 Visiting Scientist, ATO DLO, Wageningen, The Netherlands.
• 2000 Board of Directors, Western Galilee Academic College

Teaching Experience:

2001 Tel-Hai College - B.Sc. Course on "Environmental Microbiology".

Membership in scientific and agricultural committees:

Editorial responsibilities

Participation in International Meetings

• 1984 Intl. Mushroom Symp., Budapest, Hungary.
• 1986 Intl. Symp. on Edible Fungi, State College, PA, USA.
• 1987 Intl. Symp. on Mushrooms, Braunschweig, German.
• 1988 Intl. Symp. on Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, Hong Kong.
• 1992 Intl. Conference on environmental quality and ecosystem stability, Jerusalem, Israel.
• 1993 Intl. Symp.on Mushroom Biology & Production, Hong Kong.
• 1995 Intl. Soc. Mushroom Sci., Oxford, U.K..
• 1999 2nd Intl. Symp. Mushroom Biology & Mushroom Products. Sydney, Australia.
• 2000 XV Intl. Cong. On Science & Biology of Edible Fungi.  Maastricht, Netherlands.

Special invitations

1997 Lecturer, Indian Mushroom Conf., Solan, H.P. India.

Invitations by professional societies in Israel:

Membership in professional societies:

International Society of Mushroom Science

Competitive grants:

• 1993 German-Israeli R & D Fund (GIFRID).
  Principal Investigator. 2 yrs.
• 1998 German-Israel R & D Fund (Gifrid).
  Principal Investigator, 2 yrs.
• 1998 EU Agricultural Research (FAIR) Grant.
  Principal Investigator, 2 yrs.
• 2001 German-Israel R & D Fund (Gifrid).
  Principal Investigator, 2 yrs.
• 2002 EU Agricultural Research (FAIR) Grant.
  Principal Investigator, 2 yrs

Awards:

Contributions to scientific community:

Research on higher fungi (mushrooms)
The mushroom research unit at MIGAL concerns itself with applied research  on the development of mushroom cultivation and mushroom products. As the Group Manager of the Northern R&D  Dr Danai's responsibilities include the initiation of research according to the needs
of mushroom growers in Israel, particularly those in the northern part of the country. Research is partly performed in co-operation with scientists from other institutions, especially the Volcani Center and the Faculty of Agriculture of the Hebrew University. These studies have made significant scientific contributions to:

• The establishment of chemical, physical and biological parameters for the quality control of compost (41, 63)
• Recycling agricultural wastes for use as casing soils in mushroom production (42, 47)
• The utilization of cotton straw as a substrate for the cultivation of edible fungi (41, 49)
• Developing bulk production methods for the production of exotic mushrooms, such as Oyster (Pleurotus sp.) and Shiitake (Lentinus edodes) (41, 54, 55)
• Morphological, physiological and biochemical aspects of the growth of edible fungi in liquid and solid media (49, 52, 58, 62, 64).

LIST OF PUBLICATIONS

Articles in Reviewed Journals

• Danai, O., Levanon, D. and Silanikove, N. 1987. Cotton straw silage for Pleurotus production on commercial scale. Mushroom Information 12:2-3.
• Levanon, D., Masaphy, S. and Danai, O. 1988. Nutritional and ecological aspects of the use of organic wastes for mushroom casing. Mushroom Information 15:13-14.
• Levanon, D., Danai, O. and Masaphy, S. 1988. Chemical and physical parameters in recycling organic wastes for mushroom production. Biological Wastes 26:341-348.
• Silanikove, N., Danai, O. and Levanon, D. 1988. Composted cotton straw silage as a substitute for Pleurotus sp. cultivation. Biological Wastes, 25:219-226.
• Levanon, D., Danai, O. and Silanikove, N. 1989 Cotton straw silage as a substitute for Pleurotus sp. cultivation. Mushroom Sci. 12:81-90.
• Marchaim, U., Danai, O., Masaphy, S., Chen, Y., Inbar, Y. and Klinger, I. 1991. A suggested solution for slaughterhouse wastes: uses of the residual materials after anaerobic digestion. Bioresource Technol. 37:127-134.
• Levanon, D., Rothschild, N., Danai, O. and Masaphy, S. 1993a. Strain selection and improved cultivation methods for shiitake mushrooms (Lentinus edodes) on straw. Biores. Technol. 45:9-12.
• Levanon, D., Rothschild, N., Danai, O. and Masaphy, S. 1993b. Bulk treatment of substrate for cultivation of shiitake mushrooms (Lentinus edodes) on straw. Biores. Technol. 45:63-64.
• Levanon, D. and Danai, O. 1995. Chemical, physical and microbiological considerations in recycling spent mushroom substrates. Compost Sci. & Util. 3:72-80.
• Danai, O. and Levanon, D. 1996.  The use of cabutz as a means to reduce wet bubble disease in the mushroom industry. Mushroom News 44(11):24-27.
• Levanon, D. and Danai, O. 1997. Recycling agricultural residuals in Israel. BioCycle 6:56-57.
• Danai, O., Olenik, I., Hadar, Y., Chet, I. and Levanon, D. 1998. The role of light in the morphogenesis of Pleurotus ostreatus. J. Mush. Sci. 2:33-39.
• Danai, O., Oleinik, I., Levanon, D., Chet, I. and Hadar, Y. 2000. The effect if light on catalase activity in Pleurotus morphogenesis.  Proc. Intl. Cong. On Science and Cultivation of Edible Fungi, Maastricht, The Netherlands (in press).
• Danai, O. and. Levanon, D. 2000. Selection of substrate for mushroom cultivation and spawn production. Mushroom Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, Labarere(eds.)Global Network on Mushrooms under the aegis of F.A.O.

3. Articles in non-reviewed journals:

• Platt, M., Danay, O., Chet, I. and Henis, Y. 1981. Pleurotus mushrooms - a potential new crop suitable to Israeli conditions. Hasadeh 61(5):761-763.
• Levanon, D. and Danai, O. 1985. The international symposium on mushroom science. Hassadeh, 65(4):704-706.
• Danai, O. and Escobar, G. 1990. Profile of the potential for exotic mushroom production in El Salvador. Min. Ag., San Salvador.
• Danai, O. and Levanon, D. 1990. Recent developments in speciality mushroom production in Europe. Hassadeh

Articles published in Proceedings of Symposia:

• Levanon, D., Motro, B., Dosoretz, C. and Danai, O. 1984. Morphogenesis and nutrition of Agaricus bisporus as affected by synthetic casing. Proc. Int. Symp. on Substrates for Mushroom Growing and the Cultivation of Pleurotus sp. Budapest, Hungary (abstr.).
• Levanon, D., Danai, O. and Motro, B. 1985. Morphogenesis and nutrition of Agaricus bisporus as affected by synthetic casing. IX Cong. Eur. Mycologists. Oslo, Norway (abstr.).
• Levanon, D., Masaphy, S., Blinki, P. and Danai, O. 1991. Lignocellulytic activity of Pleurotus pulmonarius in liquid culture. Proc. Ann. Meet. Soc. Microbiol. Dallas, TX (abstr.).
• Danai, O., Levanon, D., Hadar, Y. and Chet, I. 1993. The effect of light on morphogenesis of Pleurotus spp. Proc. I Intl. Symp. on Mushroom Biology & Mushroom Products. Hong Kong.

Books and invited reviews

• Levanon, D., Danai, O. and Masaphy, S. 1993. Aspects of selecting organic wastes as substrates for edible fungi. In: Mushroom Production and Research (M. Zjalic, ed.). FAO REUR Technical Series 23, pp. 109-119.
• Levanon, D. and danai, O. 2000.  Environmental aspects of growing mushrooms. In: Manual for Growing Pleurotus (D.J. Royse and J.E. Sanchez, eds.).

 Abstracts:

• Levanon, D., Danai, O. and Motro, B. 1985. Morphogenesis and nutrition of A. bisporus as affected by synthetic casing. 9th Cong. European Mycologists. Oslo.
• Levanon, D. and O. Danai. 1986. The use of agricultural waste a synthetic casing. Proc. Technical and Scientific Symp. on Edible Fungi. Penn. State University.
• Levanon, D., Danai, O. and Silanikove, N. 1986. The efficiency of lignocellulose degradation by varieties of Pleurotus sp.  Proc. Technical and Scientific Symp. on Edible Fungi. Penn. State University.
• Levanon, D., Danai, O. and Masaphy, S. 1988. Preservation and use of cotton straw for Pleurotus cultivation. GIAM & INCABB Symp. on Global Impacts of Applied Microbiol. and Biotechnol. Hong Kong.
• Danai, O. and Levanon, D. 1996. An alternative material for casing soil in mushroom production. 8th Intl. Cong. on Bacteriology and Applied Microbiology (IUMS ), Jerusalem.

Final research reports:

• Levanon, D., Dosoretz, C.G. and Danai, O. (1983-86). The use of  agricultural wastes for mushroom casing. (Hebrew).
• Levanon, D. and Danai, O. 1986. Production of Pleurotus mushroom on cotton waste. Report to Industrial Binational Fund.
• Danai, O., Levkovitz, G. and Levanon, D. 1991. The development of technologies for mushroom production in northern Israel. Report to Northern R & D and MIGAL, Kiryat Shmona, Israel.