DIFFERENTIATION OF INTERSTERILITY GROUPS AND GEOGRAPHIC PROVENANCES AMONG ISOLATES OF HETEROBASIDION-ANNOSUM DETECTED BY RANDOM AMPLIFIED POLYMORPHIC DNA ASSAYS

Random amplified polymorphic DNAs were correlated with the intersteril ity group and the geographic provenance of 36 isolates of Heterobasidi on annosum from North America and Europe and of one herbarium collecti on of basidiocarps from California. This technique is very precise and yields higher resolution than previous studies implementing technique s such as isozyme electrophoresis and restriction fragment length poly morphisms. Random amplified polymorphic DNAs revealed differentiation among the following geographic groups and intersterility groups: weste rn North American P, eastern North American P, European P, North Ameri can S, Scandinavian S, Italian S, and Italian F. This is the first rep ort on differentiation between eastern and western North American P is olates as well as between northern and southern European S isolates. S uccessful amplification of one dry basidiocarp suggests that random am plified polymorphic DNAs may be used to improve epidemiological and po pulation studies of this pathogen.