Determination and Analysis of Hyper-Variable A Mating Types in Wild Strains of Lentinula edodes in Korea

The diversity of A mating type in wild strains of Lentinula edodes was extensively analyzed to characterize and utilize them for developing new cultivars. One hundred twenty-three A mating type alleles, including 67 newly discovered alleles, were identified from 106 wild strains collected for the past four decades in Korea. Based on previous studies and current findings, a total of 130 A mating type alleles have been found, 124 of which were discovered from wild strains, indicating the hyper-variability of A mating type alleles of L. edodes. About half of the A mating type alleles in wild strains were found in more than two strains, whereas the other half of the alleles were found in only one strain. About 90% of A mating type combinations in dikaryotic wild strains showed a single occurrence. Geographically, diverse A mating type alleles were intensively located in the central region of the Korean peninsula, whereas only allele A17 was observed throughout Korea. We also found the conservation of the TCCCAC motif in addition to the previously reported motifs, including ATTGT, ACAAT, and GCGGAG, in the intergenic regions of A mating loci. Sequence comparison among some alleles indicated that accumulated mutation and recombination would contribute to the diversification of A mating type alleles in L. edodes. Our data support the rapid evolution of A mating locus in L. edodes, and would help to understand the characteristics of A mating loci of wild strains in Korea and help to utilize them for developing new cultivars.