Ribosomal Intergenic Spacer 1 Based Characterization of Button Mushroom () Strains.

Breeding the button mushroom requires genetic information about its strains. This study was undertaken to genetically characterize four domestically bred button mushroom strains (Saea, Saejung, Saedo, Saeyeon cultivars) and to assess the possibility of using the intergenic spacer 1 (IGS1) region of rDNA as a genetically variable region in the genetic characterization. For the experiment, 34 strains of , two strains of , and one strain of , from 17 countries were used. Nucleotide sequence analysis of IGS1 rDNA in these 37 strains confirmed that genetic variations exist, not only among the four domestic strains, but also between the four domestic strains and foreign strains. Crossing two different haploid strains of seems to generate genetic variation in the IGS1 region in their off-spring haploid strains. Phylogenetic analysis based on the IGS1 sequence revealed all strains could be differentiated from and strains. Five genetic groups were resolved among strains. Saejung and Saeyeon cultivars formed a separate genetic group. Our results suggest that IGS1 could be complementarily applied in the polymorphism analysis of button mushroom.