Population Genetics and Systematics of the Morchella esculenta Complex

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Abstract
Allelic frequencies for strains of an early occurring gray form of Morchella and the tan M. esculenta were determined for collections from west central Illinois and southwestern Wisconsin. Horizontal starch gel electrophoresis was used to determine electromorph (allele) frequencies from fourteen enzyme systems encoded by twenty presumptive structural loci. A total of 122 monoascosporous isolates from 72 ascocarps were studied. Electrophoretic polymorphisms were found in strains of both forms demonstrating that they exist as Mendelian populations. In general, the gray form and M. esculenta had a high genetic similarity when they occurred at the same locality, indicating that they were likely derived from a common ancestral population. The Plymouth strains were genetically more similar to the Eagle Township strains than the strains from the Richland Center area, which had a larger separation than the other collections. Geographic distance between Illinois and Wisconsin strains resulted in substantial genetic differentiation attributable to genetic drift (Fst = 0.165). Strains of the two different forms, however, do not cluster separately in a phenetic analysis indicating that the two phenotypes are not different taxa.

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