Journal of Ecosystem & Ecography
Open Access

Abstract

This genus Lentinus is represented in Tamil Nadu with twelve species L. tuberregium, L. pseudotenebrosus, L. squarrosulus, L. cyathiformis, L. stupeus, L. radicus, L. velutinus, L. similis, L. subdulcis, L. strigosus, L. cladopus and L. kaufmanii. The identification was done with both classical and molecular tools (performed for only 6 species). DNA was extracted from the dried fungal mycelia of L. tuberregium, L. pseudotenebrosus, L. squarrosulus, L. tigrinus, L. cladopus and L. kaufamnii. The rDNA- ITS region was amplified using the primer pairs ITS 1 and ITS 4. The DNA sequences were deposited in the GenBank database. The sequence data from ITS 1 and ITS 2 region of isolates were aligned against published sequence data. Results were obtained to estimate the evolutionary relationships between wide ranges of Lentinus species. The analysis of phylogeny resulted in two different groups among the Lentinus isolates. The results of this study demonstrates that the amplified regions of the ITS contains sufficient variations for the taxonomic problem. Thus, revealing that molecular tool is reliable with the classical taxonomy as they are congruent with each other. Further, polysaccharides and compound isolation studies were also performed the above mentioned isolates, as the result biomass production is directly correlated with exopolysaccharide production, there is a positive correlation between pellet morphology and EPS production. Further, hyphal hairs increased more EPS production while less hair does not. L. cladopus produced maximum polysaccharides followed by L. tuberregium. The compound isolated was tested for its antimicrobial and antioxidant potential which showed that it has very good activity.

Biography

M. Kumar worked under Dr. V. Kaviyarasan for Ph.D, on agarics of Eastern Ghats. Now, working on the diversity of Basidiomycetous fungi of South India, especially tropical dry evergreen forests