ITS-PCR-RFLP method for distinguishing commercial cultivars of edible mushroom, Flammulina velutipes

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 5.8S rRNA coding sequence was used to differentiate between 7 typical Flammulina strains. These nucleotide seqeuences revealed the presence of strain-specific deletions, insertions, and substitutions. Moreover, RFLP patterns produced using restriction endonucleases DraI, FokI, HaeII, MboII, and NlarV, enabled Identification of specific Pammulina strains. Thus, PCR-RFLP analysis of the ITS regions appears to be a useful tool for the identification of Flaninudina strains.