Identification of mushroom mycelia using DNA techniques

The suitability of using DNA techniques in the determination of relatedness of mushroom fruiting bodies to isolated mycelia was examined. Nine isolates of edible mushroom mycelia of general Oudemansiella, Coprinus and Pleurotus were identified using fruiting bodies as references. Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) in conbination with Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (RLFP) analyses were carried out on fruiting bodies and mycelia of the isolates. The internally transcribed spacer region (ITS) and ribosomal RNA gene (rDNA) was amplified using ITS1 and ITS4 primers. The RLFP analysis was carried out on the regions amplified by PCR from fruiting bodies and the mycelia was established by looking at DNA fragment band sizes and patterns. Banding patterns and fragment sizes of DNA obtained from mycelia and their corresponding fruiting bodies were identical and characteristic for the species. Using this technique, it was possible to sort out a case of mistaken identity of Oudemansiella fruiting bodies, which were interchanged with another mushroom specimen during packing. The method is fast, accurate, and could be used for routine screening of edible mushrooms of Tanzania for taxonomical purposes. For the latter purpose, it is required that the RFLP database of taxonomically known species is in place. Tanzanian Journal of Science Vol. 28(1) 2002: 115-12