Species of the Pleurotus ostreatus complex (the oyster mushrooms) are one of the main groups of cultivated edible mushrooms in China. Due to phenotypic plasticity and morphological stasis, the species delimitation of the complex is often difficult and controversial. How to recognize the species of the complex rapidly and accurately is an urgent taskin the mushroom industry.

In the past, Pleurotus species has been identified by morphological characteristics or individual DNA fragments (such as ITS) based on the sequence, but it is difficult to accurately achieve. Research group lead by Prof. YANG Zhuliang at Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences (KIB/CAS) has recently conducted a study of the oyster mushrooms. In this study, 284 strains from different mushroom spawn preservation centers, companies, and the wild, were investigated via phylogenetic analyses inferred from sequences of the internal transcribed spacer region (ITS), translation elongation factor 1-α (TEF1) and two genes that encode subunits of RNA polymerase ІІ (RPB1 and RPB2). Data has indicated that the 284 strains of the Chinese oyster mushrooms were divided into seven lineages, representing one morphological species each, namely P. abieticola, P.eryngii, P. cf. floridanus, P. ostreatus, P. placentodes, P. pulmonarius, and P. tuoliensis. The study has revealed that 56 % of all the samples were labeled with improper scientific names. Meanwhile, RPB2 was indicated as the most promising candidate segment of DNA barcode for the P. ostreatus species complex.  

This study has recently been published on Mycological Progress, titled as “Species clarification of Oyster Mushrooms in China and their DNA barcoding”. It was supported by the National Program on Key Basic Research Project of China(973 Program, No. 2014CB138305).  

Source: KIB

Date: 2017.6.8