Morphological and molecular assessment of mushroom (Lentinus Squarrosulus) (mont.) Singer

Lentinus squarrosulus is a popular mushroom in Nigeria used for traditional medicine apart from food. The identification of those high-quality fungal species is not only necessary but has great economic significance as it will allow product distributors to verify the material they are selling. Hence, this study investigated the morphological and molecular relationship among L. squarrosulus samples from different locations in Ibadan. Ten samples of L. squarrosulus were collected from nine different natural habitats in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria, from which pure cultures were prepared. Isolation of DNA was done from fruiting bodies of fresh samples evaluated. Ten primers were designed from ITS sequences of the Family Agariceae and used for the study. The ten mushrooms evaluated in the study showed diverse morphological features such as colour of cap and pileus, size of stipe and pileus. A total of 50 amplicons were generated of which 31 bands (62%) were polymorphic. The RAPD variety-specific products were generated in some of the genotypes evaluated which can serve as unique identifiers. The study showed mean values for marker gene diversity of 0.27, Polymorphism Information Content (PIC) of 0.25 and 63.81% polymorphism. Both morphological and molecular analyses revealed two clustered groups. Number and types of samples in each group were not the same in both studies. The presence of unique band pattern among sampled fungi evaluated showed the discriminating power of the primer Ast-F in the study. Keywords: Polymorphism, DNA, RAPD, Fungi, Gene diversity characterization