Abstract

The biodiversity of mushrooms in Lagos State, Nigeria was studied using modern biotechnological method of DNA sequence analyses. Sixteen mushrooms were collected in Lagos State for 12 months. The mushrooms collected include: Agaricus campestris, Coprinus comatus, Daldinia concetrica, Ganoderma adspersum, Ganoderma applanatum, Ganoderma lucidum, Mycena haematopus, Mycena sp., Pleurotus ostreatus, Pleurotus tuber-regium, Polyporus sp., Polyporus squamosus, Polyporus sulphureus, Trametes versicolor, Xylaria polymorpha, and Xylaria sp. Subsequently, eight different pure mushroom mycelia were isolated using potato dextrose agar medium (PDA) from sterile tissues of A. campestris, C. comatus, G. lucidum, P. ostreatus, P. tuber-regium, P. sulphureus, X. polymorpha, and Xylariasp. A mycelia spawn of each of the isolated mushrooms was made and kept in duplicates for DNA sequence analyses. The DNA sequence analyses of each of the eight mushroom mycelia pure isolates were carried out. No similarity was observed when a BLAST query of the mushroom DNA sequences was carried out to determine the similarity with the GenBank database previous submissions. The sequences were then submitted to the GenBank database for reference purpose. Comprehensive description given by the GenBank provides a detailed, reliable and accurate identification than visual characteristics and phenotypic properties of the mushrooms.

Key words: Biodiversity, mushroom, deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) sequence, phylogenetic tree.