Design of ILP markers for β-tubulin genes analysis in basidiomycete fungi

Aim. Creation of markers for determining intron length polymorphism (Intron Length Polymorphism – ILP) of β-tubulin genes in different groups of basidiomycetes. Methods. Use of classical bioinformatics methods to searching for loci encoding β-tubulin genes of basidiomycete fungi, cladistic analysis, analysis of the exon-intron structure of genes, design of potential ILP markers, verification of the designed primers using in silico PCR. Results. The exon-intron structure of β-tubulin genes in basidiomycetes was analyzed. Six markers were designed to determine intron length polymorphism, covering introns 2, 3, 5, and 6 of β-tubulin genes in basidiomycetes, along with their combinations, which can be used for molecular phylogeny of specific fungal species groups. Conclusions. A significant exon-intron structure variability has been shown for the analysed fungi species, which significantly complicates the creation of universal ILP markers for basidiomycetes. A number of potential markers have been designed that can be used to study intron length polymorphism of different groups of basidiomycetes, potentially expanding the possibilities for genotyping fungi.