Genetic diversity of endangered Polyporus umbellatus from China assessed using a sequence-related amplified polymorphism technique.

Polyporus umbellatus (Pers.) Fries is an endangered medicinal fungus in China with in vivo anticancer activity, but its genetic information is lacking. Eight natural P. umbellatus strains collected from 7 provinces in China were subjected to sequence-related amplified polymorphism markers to estimate the level and pattern of genetic diversity. Forty-nine primer combinations generated 1219 highly reproducible and discernible loci, among which 1023 were polymorphic. The percentage of polymorphism varied from 35.71 to 96.30 with an average of 83.92. Genetic identity among all strains ranged from 0.15 to 0.78 with an average of 0.46. The unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean dendrogram clustered 8 strains into 3 clusters, and the clustering pattern showed 3 groups. Principal coordinate analysis further indicated that the genetic diversity of P. umbellatus strains was unevenly distributed and instead displayed a clustered distribution pattern. A relatively high level of genetic diversity was maintained in 8 natural P. umbellatus strains, but its abundance might be subjected to environmental heterogeneity, and the population structure of co-evolved Armillaria species may be selected by nature under the specific microenvironment.