ANDERSON, IC, CHAMBERS SM & CAIRNEY JWG.
Mycorrhiza Research Group, School of Science, University of Western Sydney (Nepean), PO Box 10, Kingswood, NSW 2747, AUSTRALIA.
One hundred and twenty isolates of Pisolithus were collected from eastern Australia and Indonesia. Genomic DNA was extracted and the isolates were screened for variation using a combination of restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region and ITS sequence analysis. ITS-RFLP and ITS sequence analyses indicated that four distinct groups could be identified within the sampled population. This was strongly supported by a strict consensus tree generated by a bootstrap analysis of the sequence data, suggesting that at least four Pisolithus species are present within the sampled carpophore population. Carpophore morphology did not appear to be useful in discriminating the four species, however preliminary data indicate that basidiospore morphology and/or size may prove more useful.