Laetiporus zonatus: an addition to edible polypore fungi in Pakistan

Laetiporus is a cosmopolitan genus of the "Antrodia clade" in the order Polyporales that causes brown rot in many hardwood trees and some conifers. In the current study, we examined specimens of Laetiporus zonatus collected from Quercus semecarpifolia (Fagaceae) at three different localities in the district Swat, KP, Pakistan. The specimen’s identity was determined through extensive morphoanatomical examination and molecular characterization. For reconstruction of the phylogenetic relationships of the species, the study applied three methods: maximum parsimony (MP), maximum likelihood (ML), and Bayesian analyses to the concatenated dataset (ITS + nrLSU + rpb2). The mean character difference approach was utilized to create a phenetic cladogram through morphometric analysis. Our sample sequence grouped together with Laetiporus zonatus showing significant support values of 87% for MP, 98% for ML and 1.0 for Bayesian analyses. The morphological data matrix showed a high degree of similarity (Bray-curtis similarity = 0.925, Euclidean distance = 3.81) between our specimen and L. zonatus. Our study also provides habitat characteristics and in vitro cultural characteristics of the isolates. Laetiporus zonatus is characterized by yellow pileal surface, become pale buff to creamy when dry and whitish cream pore surface, distinctly zonate, radially furrowed upper surface and undulating white margin, 2-3 pores mm-1, ellipsoid to ovoid basidiospores (5.6–8.7 × 4.2–5.9 μm) with Q value of 1.16-1.55 and is found exclusively on Quercus spp. in temperate forests.