Characterization of simple sequence repeats in the Pleurotus ostreatus cultivars, ‘Heuktari’ and ‘Miso’

: Simple sequence repeats (SSR), also referred to “microsatellites” consist of tandemly repeated short DNA sequence motifs and have been applied in various marker-based studies. SSRs were isolated and characterized from ‘Heuktari’ and ‘Miso’, which are major oyster mushroom cultivars in Korea, by genome sequencing and bioinformatic analysis. The genome sizes of ‘Heuktari’ and ‘Miso’ were estimated to be 40.8 and 40.3 Mb, respectively, which are larger than those of other P. ostreatus species (PC9 and PC10) and smaller than those of P. eryngii (KNR2312P5). In total, 949 and 968 SSRs were found in the ‘Heuktari’ and ‘Miso’ genomes, respectively. Comparative analysis of five mushrooms including P. ostreatus var. florida (PC9 and PC15) and P. eryngii revealed that the number of SSRs in ‘Heuktari’ and ‘Miso’ were the highest among them. All mushrooms studied showed similar SSR distribution patterns. Tri-, hexa-, and octanucleotide motifs accounted for the top three fractions of all SSRs.