Abstract
Fungal pathogens have caused severe damage to the commercial production of Pleurotus eryngii, the king oyster mushroom, by reducing production yield, causing deterioration of commercial value, and shortening shelf-life. Four strains of pathogenic fungi, including Trichoderma koningiopsis DC3, Phomopsis sp. MP4, Mucor circinelloides MP5, and Cladosporium bruhnei MP6, were isolated from the bottle culture of diseased P. eryngii. A species-specific primer set was designed for each fungus from the ITS1-5.8S rDNA-ITS2 sequences. PCR using the ITS primer set yielded a unique DNA band for each fungus without any cross-reaction, proving the validity of our method in detection of mushroom fungal pathogens.