IGS sequence variation, group-I introns and the complete nuclear ribosomal DNA of the entomopathogenic fungus Metarhizium: excellent tools for isolate detection and phylogenetic analysis

The complete nuclear rDNA gene complex of Metarhizium anisopliae var. anisopliae isolate ME1 is 8118 bp long and contains the 18S, 5.8S, and 28S rRNA genes as well as the ITS and IGS regions. Variation in the ITS of isolates of M. anisopliae var. anisopliae and one each of Metarhizium anisopliae var. acridum, Metarhizium flavoviride var. flavoviride, and Metarhizium flavoviride var. minus, clustered 39 out of 40 of M. anisopliae var. anisopliae isolates in one clade. Nucleotide sequence variation in the IGS among 21 of M. anisopliae var. anisopliae isolates showing IGS length variation sorted them into three strongly supported clades, which were weakly correlated with insect hosts and were not correlated with geographic location. Two group-I introns, Ma-int4 and Ma-int5, were discovered in the 18S and the 3ʹ end of the 28S, in M. anisopliae var. anisopliae isolates ITALY-12 and IMBST 9601. The insertion sites and sub-group of these introns correlated with their closest relatives, as judged by phylogenetic analysis of intron nucleotide sequence.