Species-specific priming PCR (SSPP) As an advantage of the sequence divergence among fungi, oligonucleotide se-quences may be used to design species-specific primers for PCR. At first sight, SSPP seems to be a powerful molecular identification tool for fungi. Subsequent restriction of the amplicon as well as the use of pure fungal cultures, axenically obtained samples, and precautions to exclude DNA from the laboratory or from contaminated field material are not required. Jasalavich et al. (1998) used primers that detect any basidiomycete fungus present, but not a particular species. Specific PCR primers were able to detect the aggressive biotypes 2 and 4 of Trichoderma harzianum (T aggressivum f. europaeum and f. aggressivurn), which are strong parasites in the mushroom production of agarics, Ship-take, ( Albert 2003). With regard to the tree-inhabiting Ba-sidiomycetes, special ITS-primers were used for Heterobasidion annosum and Armillaria ostoyae (Ga
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