Diversity in the spore print of the hybrid of Lentinula and Pleurotus on the basis of nuclear DNA content

Four spore prints of the strains of Lentinula edodes L18, L. edodes L19, Pleurotus ostreatus ◊ P. ostreatus P403◊P404 and L. edodes ◊ P. ostreatus L19-1◊P404 were studied with flow cytometry. Diversity was found in the spore print of the interspecies hybrid fruitbody L19-1◊P404 and in the spore print of the fruitbodies of the parental strains P403◊P404 and L19. One fruitbody can produce two more or less equally represented subpopulations of spores with different nuclear DNA and protein contents. There exist subpopulations with similar DNA content among the spore prints produced by parental and hybrid fruitbodies. The dikaryon stage in the fungal life cycle allows for the genomes of different species to coexist and to even produce a fruitbody. Diversity of the nuclear DNA content of a spore print reflects the fate of the hybrid genome during meiosis. After karyogamy, this fruitbody distributes viable spores. It means that meiosis can even occur in the case of low density of homology between the chromosomes (CLP and aneuploidy) ensuring distribution of highly different genome sizes of strains.