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Extremely low AFLP variation in the European dry rot fungus (Serpula lacrymans): implications for self/nonself-recognition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 October 2004

Håvard KAUSERUD ,
Olaf SCHMIDT ,
Malin ELFSTRAND  and
Nils HÖGBERG
Håvard KAUSERUD
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, Division of Botany and Plant Physiology, University of Oslo, P.O. Box 1045, Blindern, N-0316 Oslo, Norway. E-mail: haavarka@bio.uio.no
Olaf SCHMIDT
Affiliation:
Chair of Wood Biology, University of Hamburg, Leuschnerstr. 91, D-21031 Hamburg, Germany.
Malin ELFSTRAND
Affiliation:
Department of Forest Mycology and Pathology, Box 7026, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, S-750 07 Uppsala, Sweden.
Nils HÖGBERG
Affiliation:
Department of Forest Mycology and Pathology, Box 7026, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, S-750 07 Uppsala, Sweden.
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Abstract

The devastating dry rot fungus, Serpula lacrymans, has a worldwide occurrence in buildings. We investigated the genetic variation in European isolates belonging to five vegetative compatibility groups (VCGs) by AFLP analysis. Our results indicate that S. lacrymans in Europe is genetically extremely homogenous; only five out of 308 scored AFLP fragments (1.6%) were polymorphic. In contrast, S. himantioides, the closest relative of S. lacrymans, possessed 31.3% polymorphic fragments (84 out of 268). AFLP polymorphisms observed in S. lacrymans were distributed independently of the VCG boundaries, indicating that the VCGs do not represent clones but that different genets of S. lacrymans frequently share similar vic alleles due to low genetic variation. Thus, although the European S. lacrymans is genetically extremely homogeneous, and our results suggest that the species reproduces and spreads mainly sexually and not by clones.

Type
Research Article
Information
Mycological Research , Volume 108 , Issue 11 , November 2004 , pp. 1264 - 1270
Copyright
© The British Mycological Society 2004

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