Ganoderma australe from southern India

SummaryThe genetic diversity of Ganoderma australe (Fr.) Pat. from southern India was investigated by using ITS1/2 rDNA. The phylogenetic analysis showed that six isolates clustered into two groups viz. biological species I and II. The four strains of BS I (YER03, MYC5, MYC2 and KE) clustered with G. australe TAI-01 and the two other strains of BS II (KMK3 and K39) were grouped with G. australe TAI-05 from Taiwan. The two strains namely TAI-01 and TAI-05 were described as G. australe intersterile Group 1 and 2 from Taiwan, respectively. The higher level nucleotide divergence among BS I and BS II and the high bootstrapping support clearly represent the presence of two biological species of G. australe in southern India which are genetically isolated.