Phylogenetic Analysis of Phellinus linteus and Related Species Comparing the Sequences of rDNA Internal Transcribed Spacers

The phylogenetic tree displayed the presence of five groups in the Phellinus genus, which were distinguished based on their morphology. Most of the p. linteus appeared a cluster which was highly significant with the exception of P. linteus KACC 500122 and KACC 500411. They formed the sister taxa of P 1inteus where P. baumii, Phellinus sp. MPNU 7003, MPNU 7007, and MPNU 7010 had similar morphological characteristics. Also, P. nigricans IMSNU 32024 and P. pini var, carniformans IMSNU 32031 were grouped in the same cluster with P. igniarius KCTC 6227, KCTC 6228, and P. chrysoloma KCTC 6225 extracted from the Gen-Bank database. P. torulosus IMSNU 32028 and Phellinus sp. MPNU 7011 formed a closed group, however, these species had a distant taxa when compared with the other Phellinus species. The nucleotide sequences of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) regions of ribosomal DNA (rDNA) including the 5.85 rDNA were determined from 24 strains of the Phellinus genus in order to analyze their phylogenetic relationship. These fungi were divided into two basic groups based on their ITS length, however, this grouping was different from that based on their morphological characteristics. Although various ITS sequences were ambiguously aligned, conserved sites were also identified. Accordingly, a neighbor-joining tree was constructed using the nucleotide sequence data of the conserved sites of the ITS regions and the 5.8S rDNA.