Canadian Forest Service Publications
Variation in the mitochondrial DNA of Chondrostereum purpureum. 1998. Ramsfield, T.D.; Punja, Z.K.; Shamoun, S.F.; Hintz, W.E. Canadian Journal of Plant Pathology 20: 128.
Year: 1998
Issued by: Pacific Forestry Centre
Catalog ID: 5061
Language: English
Availability: Not available through the CFS (click for more information).
Abstract
The variation in the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) of Chondrostereum purpureum, a potential biological control agent for competing hardwood trees in conifer plantations and utility rights-of-way, is currently being assessed. Extraction, purification, and restriction digestion of the mtDNA indicated that it is approximately 67 kb in size, close to the 50-52 kb reported for Schizophyllum commune, a closely related basidiomycete. Restriction digestion of the mtDNA of four isolates, two from British Columbia, Canada, one from Switzerland, and one from Finland, with the restriction endonucleases BamHI and HindIII, showed a high degree of similarity. To screen a larger sample population, a 3000 bp fragment putatively containing the NADH oxidoreductase 4 gene, is being amplified by PCR and digested with restriction endonucleases. Initially, this fragment was amplified from five isolates, each with different ribosomal DNA patterns, and screened for polymorphisms with restriction endonucleases. To date, 18 restriction endonucleases have been tested and none have shown polymorphisms. The uniformity of the total mtDNA banding patterns, and the failure of 18 restriction enzymes to show polymorphisms, suggests that there is a low degree of variation in the mtDNA of Chondrostereum purpureum. Further screening for polymorphisms in this fragment is ongoing at this time, and additional sequences will be screened.