Intra- and inter-specific variations in the copy number of two types of retrotransposons from the ectomycorrhizal basidiomycete Tricholoma matsutake

To explore intra- and inter-specific variations of the ectomycorrhizal basidiomycete Tricholoma matsutake that produces the fruit body matsutake, we carried out real-time PCR analysis based on two types of retrotransposons, one designated marY1, which resembles a retrovirus carrying the long terminal repeat (LTR) and the other marY2N, which resembles mRNA carrying the polyadenylated tail. Calculation based on the average genome size of homobasidiomycetes (34 Mbp) shows that ca. 5.5% of the total genome of T. matsutake isolated from Asia is made up of these retrotransposons, whereas they occupy ca. 1.4% in the isolates from Morocco, ca. 0.8% in isolates from Mexico, and ca. 0.5% in Tricholoma magnivelare, the species which produces American matsutake. Other Tricholoma spp. that produce fruit bodies similar to those of T. matsutake, such as T. bakamatsutake, T. fulvocastaneum, and T. robustum, carry them in the region less than 0.05% of their total genome. Copy number of LTR of marY1 is consistently and markedly higher than that of the coding regions of marY1 and marY2N. Data suggest that retrotransposons are deeply involved in evolution of the ectomycorrhizal symbiont.