The intronic minisatellite OsMin1 within a serine protease gene in the Chinese caterpillar fungus Ophiocordyceps sinensis

Repetitive DNA sequences make up a significant portion of all genomes and may occur in intergenic, regulatory, coding, or even intronic regions. Partial sequences of a serine protease gene csp1 was previously used as a population genetic marker of the Chinese caterpillar fungus Ophiocordyceps sinensis, but its first intron region was excluded due to ambiguous alignment. Here in this study, we report the presence of a minisatellite OsMin1 within this intron, where a 20(19)-bp repeat motif is duplicated two to six times in different isolates. Fourteen intron alleles and 13 OsMin1 alleles were identified among 125 O. sinensis samples distributed broadly on the Tibetan Plateau. Two OsMin1 alleles were prevalent, corresponding to either two or five repeats of the core sequence motif. OsMin1 appears to be a single locus marker in the O. sinensis genome, but its origin is undetermined. Abundant recombination signals were detected between upstream and downstream flanking regions of OsMin1, suggesting that OsMin1 mutate by unequal crossing over. Geographic distribution, fungal phylogeny, and host insect phylogeny all significantly affected intron distribution patterns but with the greatest influence noted for fungal genotypes and the least for geography. As far as we know, OsMin1 is the first minisatellite found in O. sinensis and the second found in fungal introns. OsMin1 may be useful in designing an efficient protocol to discriminate authentic O. sinensis from counterfeits.