ITS-PCR-RFLP Method for Distinguishing Commercial Cultivars of Edible Mushroom, Flammulina velutipes

Abstract

Nucleotide sequence and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) - restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis of the ribosomal RNA gene (rDNA) regions containing the internal transcribed spacers (ITSs) and the 5.8S rRNA coding sequence was used to differentiate between 7 typical Flammulina strains. These nucleotide sequences revealed the presence of strain-specific deletions, insertions, and substitutions. Moreover, RFLP patterns produced using restriction endonucleases DraI, FokI, HaeII, MboII, and NlaIV, enabled identification of specific Flammulina strains. Thus, PCR-RFLP analysis of the ITS regions appears to be a useful tool for the identification of Flammulina strains.