exhibited slight chilling injury (CI) (Fig. 4B). At 8ºC and 12ºC, the shelf life was less than 2 days. Decreasing the temperature to 4ºC further decreased the shelf life mainly due to more severe CI. The CI of the straw mushrooms exhibited water-soaking of tissues and browning. The shelf life was shortest at ambient conditions and at 4ºC (less than 1 day). The MDA content, a measure of lipid peroxidation, was highest at ambient conditions and at 4ºC on day 1 (Fig. 4C), indicating a rapid rate of cellular deterioration resulting in browning. Furthermore, the total protein contents in the mushrooms stored at high temperatures of 15ºC and ambient conditions (Fig. 4D) slightly increased from initial values (4.1%) during storage. As a tropical fungus, straw mushroom is highly sensitive to low storage temperatures compared with mushrooms grown in other zones, such as button mushrooms (5ºC) 10 and shiitake mushrooms (1ºC) 11, causing the storage life of straw mushrooms to be much shorter