Genetic diversity and population structure of Iranian wild Pleurotus eryngii species- complex strains revealed by URP-PCR markers

In the present study, a set of 68 P. eryngii wild strains collected from nine locations in northwest and west of Iran along with six commercial strains were studied using universal rice primers (URP). The wild strains were isolated from Ferula ovina, F. haussknechtii, Cachrys ferulacea, Kellusia odoratissima and Smyrniopsis aucheri plant species. Eleven URP primers amplified 188 polymorphic fragments. A total of 3, 2 and 7 bands were specific to the strains collected from F. ovina and C. ferulacea plant species and commercial strains, respectively. The highest and lowest polymorphisms were identified in populations B (66.49%) and F (24.47%), respectively. Genetic distances among populations ranged from 0.027 (between populations A and B) to 0.393 (between populations C and F) with an average of 0.210. The closest and furthest wild populations to commercial strains were populations B (0.102) and F (0.234), respectively. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) revealed significant among regions, among populations within regions and within population diversity, whereas within population variation (61.6%) accounted for most of the total molecular variance.