Fungal DNA Barcoding at Kew: Closing the Sequence Gap
Among macro-organisms, fungi pose the greatest identification challenge. © Dirk Redecker.
DNA sequence-based identification has lowered the identification barrier for fungi. However, the link between molecular identification and our knowledge of fungi is weak because so far it has been an inefficient and biased by-product of the work of molecular phylogeneticists and ecologists. DNA barcoding is a systematic way to link DNA data with reference specimens to facilitate identification. There is a lack of DNA sequence data associated with the record number of specimens in Kew’s fungal collection; currently only about 100 out of its 800,000 specimens are represented in GenBank. This neglect extends to all other British mycological collections. State-of-the-art instruments can raise the profile of Kew mycology and fungi in general, attract new researchers, and enable a novel and timely contribution to identification that takes into account comprehensiveness with a much needed emphasis on unculturable fungi, accuracy, online accessibility and information content.
The objectives of this project are: 1) to develop a high specimen throughput facility for DNA barcoding one of the world’s premier fungal collections; 2) to investigate options for enhancement of the fungal identification services carried out at Kew; 3) to investigate intraspecific genetic diversity and species delimitation; and 4) to raise the profile of mycology in Britain.
Project Team
Project Leader: Bidartondo, Martin
Jodrell Laboratory
Begoña Aguirre-Hudson, Martin I. Bidartondo, Heidi Döring
Funders
UK
The Royal Society