Mitochondrial DNAs of the fungus Armillaria ostoyae: restriction map and length variation

A restriction-enzyme-site map is presented for the 147-kb mtDNA of North American Armillaria ostoyae. The locations of five structural genes, atp6, atp8, coxI, coxIII, and cob, along with the location and orientation of the large and small ribosomal RNA genes, were determined through Southern hybridizations with cloned genes from other fungal mtDNAs. Based on this map, the variation in mtDNA suggested geographic structure at two different levels. On a large geographic scale, 17 mtDNA types from North America were distinct, with respect to both size and restriction maps, from three mtDNA types from Europe. At the local scale, identical mtDNA types were evident among several different genetic individuals located no more than 1 km apart at a site in Michigan. No mtDNA type occurred more than once among genetic individuals from different regions of North America, although the occurrence of similar mtDNAs in isolates from distant regions suggested that this may occur at a low frequency with large sample sizes. Among the North American mtDNA types, analysis of discrete length variants was inconsistent with the hypothesis that the mtDNA of A. ostoyae evolves as a clonal lineage in which each length mutation represents a unique event. The two remaining hypotheses, that similar mutational events have occurred independently and that genetic exchange and recombination occurs among mtDNAs in natural populations of this species, remain to be tested.