Ramesh Chandra Shakywar, Siddhartha Singh, Amit Kumar Singh, Brijesh Kumar Singh, Pradeep Kumar Yadav and Dileep Kumar Pandey
Abstract
The state of Arunachal Pradesh located in the eastern Himalayan region is part of the Himalaya biodiversity hotspots. It is the largest mountainous state of India and recognized as a globally important eco-region (out of 200). In the state, people collect and consume wild-growing mushrooms exclusively based on the indigenous knowledge of the morphology of fruiting bodies. Information on the level of genetic diversity among these varieties is scarce. The genetic diversity of 10 wild edible mushrooms (WEM) represent almost all the common mushrooms sold and eaten by local people of East Siang, Arunachal Pradesh was assessed using 21 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. These markers revealed polymorphism among the strains of WEM. The average number of polymorphic alleles (3.07) and polymorphic information content (PIC = 0.40) per locus were detected among the strains. The genetic similarity among varieties using the Jaccardâs similarity coefficient ranged from 0.37 to 0.83. Unweighted pair group method using arithmetic mean (UPGMA) clustering showed two major clusters and three singletons. This study represents the first evidence of the presence of genetic diversity in WEM from East Siang, Arunachal Pradesh. Divergent varieties with complementing traits could be crossed to develop productive hybrid mushroom varieties.