Korean Journal of Mycology (Kor. J. Mycol.)
Indexed in SCOPUS, KCI, DOAJ
OPEN ACCESS, PEER REVIEWED
pISSN 0253-651X
eISSN 2383-5249
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Detection of RNA Mycoviruses in Wild Strains of Lentinula edodes in Korea

Forest Microbiology Division, Forest Bioresources Department, National Institute of Forest Science,
Suwon, 16631, Korea

Correspondence to idjys@korea.kr

Korean Journal of Mycology (Kor J Mycol) September, 2021, 49(3):285-294.
https://doi.org/10.4489/KJM.20210025
Accepted: August 24, 2021; Revised: August 18, 2021; Received: June 12, 2021
Published: September, 2021.
© 2021 THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF MYCOLOGY.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

ABSTRACT

In general, mycoviruses remain latent and rarely cause visible symptoms in fungal hosts; however, some viral infections have demonstrated abnormal mycelial growth and fruiting body development in commercial macrofungi, including Lentinula edodes. Compared to other cultivated mushrooms, L. edodes is more vulnerable to viral infections as it is still widely cultivated under near-natural conditions. In this study, we investigated whether Korean wild strains of L. edodes were infected by RNA mycoviruses that have previously been reported in other parts of the world (LeSV, LePV1, LeV-HKB, LeNSRV1, and LeNSRV2). Using specific primer sets that target the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase genes of each of the RNA mycovirus, reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was used to detect viral infection. Viral infection was detected in about 90% of the 112 wild strains that were collected in Korea between 1983 and 2020. Moreover, multiple infections with RNA mycoviruses were detected in strains that had normal fruiting bodies. This work contributes to our understanding of the distribution of RNA mycoviruses in Korea and the impact of multiple viral infections in a single strain of L. edodes.

Keywords

Lentinula edodes, Multiple infection, Mushroom, Mycovirus, RT-PCR (reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction)

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