Molecular characterization and taxonomic affinities of species of the white rot fungus Ganoderma.

The systematic affinities of Ganoderma have largely been resolved in the extensive publications of Moncalvo and coworkers (Moncalvo et al., 1995a, b; Hseu et al., 1996). The present communication adds further sequences of the ITS1 region of Ganoderma isolates from Poland and corrects some of the classifications of Ganoderma species. The sequence data indicate that G. australe and G. adspersum are different species. Both morphological and molecular data are in accord with an interspecific separation of G. pfeifferi and G. resinaceum. The ITS1 region is particularly suited for the taxonomic segregation of Ganoderma by molecular methods.