Diversity of A mating type in Lentinula edodes and mating type preference in the cultivated strains

• Published in: The journal of microbiology 2018, 56(6), , pp.416-425
• Main Authors: Ha, Byeongsuk, Kim, Sinil, Kim, Minseek, Moon, Yoon Jung, Song, Yelin, Ryu, Jae-San, Ryu, Hojin, Ro, Hyeon-Su
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Alleles; Base Sequence; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Confined spaces; Dikaryons; DNA, Fungal - genetics; Gene expression; Gene Expression Regulation, Fungal; Genes; Genes, Fungal - genetics; Genes, Mating Type, Fungal - genetics; Genetic diversity; Genetic Loci; Genome, Fungal; Genomics and Molecular Biology; Lentinula edodes; Life Sciences; Loci; Mating types; Microbial Genetics; Microbiology; Mountain regions; Quantitative Trait Loci; Republic of Korea; Sequence Analysis, DNA; Shiitake Mushrooms - genetics; Shiitake Mushrooms - growth & development; Spores, Fungal - genetics; 생물학
• ISSN: 1225-8873; 1976-3794
• DOI: 10.1007/s12275-018-8030-6

Diversity of A mating type in Lentinula edodes has been assessed by analysis of A mating loci in 127 strains collected from East Asia. It was discovered that hypervariable sequence region with an approximate length of 1 kb in the A mating locus, spanning 5′ region of HD2 -intergenic region-5′ region of HD1 , could represent individual A mating type as evidenced by comprehensive mating analysis. The sequence analysis revealed 27 A mating type alleles from 96 cultivated strains and 48 alleles from 31 wild strains. Twelve of them commonly appeared, leaving 63 unique A mating type alleles. It was also revealed that only A few A mating type alleles such as A1 , A4 , A5 , and A7 were prevalent in the cultivated strains, accounting for 62.5% of all A mating types. This implies preferred selection of certain A mating types in the process of strain development and suggests potential role of A mating genes in the expression of genes governing mushroom quality. Dominant expression of an A mating gene HD1 was observed from A1 mating locus, the most prevalent A allele, in A1 -containing dikaryons. However, connections between HD1 expression and A1 preference in the cultivated strains remain to be verified. The A mating type was highly diverse in the wild strains. Thirty-six unique A alleles were discovered from relatively small and confined area of mountainous region in Korean peninsula. The number will further increase because no A allele has been recurrently observed in the wild strains and thus newly discovered strain will have good chances to contain new A allele. The high diversity in small area also suggests that the A mating locus has evolved rapidly and thus its diversity will further increase.