VARIATION IN PISOLITHUS BASED ON BASIDIOME AND BASIDIOSPORE MORPHOLOGY, CULTURE CHARACTERISTICS AND ANALYSIS OF POLYPEPTIDES USING 1D SDS-PAGE

One hundred Pisolithus isolates, 85 Australian and 15 non-Australian c ollections, were compared and classified according to basidiospore and basidiome morphology, cultural characteristics and separation of poly peptides using ID SDS-PAGE. Basidiocarps were extremely varied and 13 types were recognized ranging in size from 2 to 20 an with various sti pe types, peridium features and different coloured spore masses. Four basidiospore types were recognized within Australia. These corresponde d to a large group found Australia-wide, a smaller group found through out south-western Australia and two small groups confined to single lo cations. Seven culture types were described, ranging from submerged, s low growing colonies to aerial, fast growing colonies. 1D SDS-PAGE of all Pisolithus isolates identified 30 soluble polypeptides between 24 and 43 kDa that were used to group the isolates using a numerical taxo nomic analysis. Basidiospore groups were readily discernible within th e polypeptide groups. In addition, analysis of the polypeptide pattern s alone or in combination with basidiospore and culture characteristic s, resulted in groups that corresponded to host species and geographic location. These observations were further demonstrated by an ordinati on using the multi-dimensional scaling procedure. One cluster was comp osed of all the non-Australian isolates collected beneath Pinus, whils t within Australia, isolates from the eastern, southern and western se aboards fell into distinct clusters. These studies indicate that pheno typic analysis of polypeptide patterns can provide a meaningful classi fication system to assist in isolate selection for future experiments.