PCR-amplification and subsequent sequencing of parts of the ribosomal DNA avoid the main limitations of RFLPs because the whole information of hundreds of nucleotides of the target DNA is used. rDNA sequences may be used for di-agnosis and for phylogenetic analyses (dendrograms) on relationships among fungi. Sequencing is nowadays the most important tool for molecular system-atics and led to taxonomic rearrangements and changes in nomenclature. The ITS sequences of a great number of wood fungi are known, e.g., from mycorrhizal fungi like Hebeloma velutipes (Aanen et al. 2001), from para-sites like Armillaria species (Chillali et al. 1998) and Laetiporus sulphureus (Rogers et al. 1999), and from the red streaks producing Trichaptum abietinum (Kauserud and Schumacher 2003). Regarding wood decay fungi, a data set of rDNA-ITS sequences of 18 house-rot fungi is shown in Table 2.8 (Schmidt and Moreth 2002/...
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