Pleurotus is considered an important genus that belongs to the family Pleurotaceae and includes the edible King Oyster mushroom (Pleurotus eryngii). In the present study, 19 Pleurotus isolates were collected from two locations in the north of Jordan (Tell ar-Rumman and Um-Qais). The morphological characteristics among collected isolates revealed that there was a morphological similarity among the collected isolates. Nucleotide sequence analysis of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS1⁻5.8S rDNA⁻ITS4 region) and 28S nuclear large subunit (nLSU) in the ribosomal DNA gene of the isolated stains showed that all of them share over 98% sequence similarity with P. eryngii. Genetic diversity among the collected strains was assessed using inter simple sequence repeat (ISSR) analysis using 18 different primer pairs. Using this approach, 141 out of 196 bands obtained were considered polymorphic and the highest percentage of polymorphism was observed using primer UBC827 (92.3%) with an overall Polymorphism Information Content (PIC) value of 70.56%. Cluster analysis showed that the Jordanian Pleurotus isolates fall into two main clades with a coefficient of similarity values ranging from 0.59 to 0.74 with a clear clustering based on collection sites. The results of the present study reveal that molecular techniques of ISSR and rDNA sequencing can greatly aid in classification and identification of Pleurotus spp. in Jordan.
Keywords: Pleurotus; genetic diversity; inter simple sequence repeat (ISSR); internal transcribed spacer region; mushroom.