Sequence variation of Pleurotus species collected from Eastern Asia

The systematic and genetic relationship among different species of Pleurotus mushrooms is still unclear. Because of that, 20 strains of Pleurotus spp. collected from differing regions, such as Korea (P. djamor, P. eryngii, P. ostreatus, P. pulmonarius), China (P. cornucopiae, P. eryngii, P. ferulae, P. nebrodensis, P. ostreatus), and Taiwan (P. cornucopiae, P. cystidiosus, P. ostreatus) were used to study their genetic make-up. In this study, we used DNA sequences of the ITS (Internal Transcribed Spacer) region to analyze the genetic diversity of Pleurotus strains. A few differences were found in the sequences implying that all strains belonged to Pleurotus regardless of the geographical origin and species. This is also supported by phylogenetic analysis, which revealed that Pleurotus strains collected from different environments have a little genetic variation in case of differing species. Some strains belonging to the same species showed 100% similarities, even those collected from different regions, suggesting that strains studied might be distributed from a common ancestor.