specific primers for identification and detection of three major desert truffle species in iran with special reference to terfezia claveryi

abstract- desert truffles are hypogeous ascomyceteous ectomycorrhizal fungi, occurring in arid and semi-arid ecosystems. a pcr-based method was developed for the identification of 3 major desert truffles of iran: terfezia claveryi, tirmania pinoyi and tirmania nivea based on internal transcribed spacers of rdna. two specific pcr primers were designed for t. claveryi, 4 for t. pinoyi, and 2 for t. nivea. all primers were specific to their homologous species and neither set amplified purified dna from other truffle species or soil-borne micromycetes. in conventional pcr, the limits of detection were 10-500 pg dna.  its-tfc1 primers detected the species in host tissues using a nested-pcr method by its1 and its4 universal primers as external set.