PCR fingerprinting with a consensus tRNA primer enables strain identification of Mortierella alpina

Employing a single DNA primer targeted to clustered tRNA genes, a PCR system has been developed which can be used to uniquely identify different strains of the zygomycete Mortierella alpina. The procedure enjoys advantages over the RAPD-PCR technique in that the single primer operates robustly within a range of PCR conditions, and can be used successfully for members of many fungal genera. As a result of the tendency of some repetitive DNA elements to integrate near to tRNA gene clusters, the possibility that this technique may be extended to identify new examples of retrotransposons and tRNA-derived short interspersed repetitive elements (SINES) is discussed.