Thon, M. R., and D. J. Royse. 1999. Mycologia. 91:468-474.
Abstract: Four primer pairs comprising six individual primers were used to amplify regions of P-tubulin genes from members of the Basidiomycotina. A region of approximately 500 bp, spanning two introns and 133 codons, was PCR-amplified and sequenced from isolates of lentinula spp., Pleurotus spp., and several related taxa. Intronic regions were highly polymorphic among Pleurotus spp. and between Pleurotus and Lentinula. Two L. lateritia isolates were 99% similar to each other and 80.7%-82.8% similar to Pleurotus species. Sufficient polymorphism also existed within protein coding regions to differentiate among species of Pleurotus. Lentinus tigrinus and Ganoderma lucidum shared a unique evolutionary lineage. The phylogenetic analysis provided evidence for an ancient gene duplication among ascomycete genes. The basidiomycete lineage is attached at a point near the Aspergillus nidulans BenA/Colletotrichum graminicola Tub2 cluster, after the divergence of the gene duplication. The existing level of variation among the fungi examined indicates that this gene will be useful in phylogenetic investigations of higher order relationships among broader groups of fungi.