CHARACTERIZATION OF INDOOR ROT FUNGI BY RAPD ANALYSIS

Various isolates of the dry rot fungus, Serpula lacrymans, the wild me rulius, S. himantioides, and the cellar fungus, Coniophora puteana, fr om Asia, Europe and USA were investigated by the polymerase chain reac tion (PCR) based technique of randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD ). The banding patterns obtained revealed for S. lacrymans a rather sp ecies-specific reaction which may be used to distinguish the dry rot f ungus from other indoor rot species. On the other hand, the isolates o f the wild merulius and the cellar fungus showed more polymorphisms po ssibly suitable for identification of individual isolates.