Using citizen science and new DNA technology to rapidly increase our baseline knowledge of fungal ecology

Ms Ema Corro¹, Caine Barlow¹

¹MYCOmmunity Apllied Mycology Inc, Melbourne, Australia

Abstract:

Mycology is the field that is most dependent on citizen scientists. Due to the cryptic nature of fungi, they have been very under-studied compared to flora and fauna. Most data about their prevalence has been gathered by citizen-mycologists reporting sightings of sporing bodies.

Over the last few years there has been an increase in interest in genetic sequencing by citizen-mycologists. However, there has been a lack of resources and training to fill this demand.

The Wild Fungi DNA project is developing environmental DNA and sequencing methods that are accessible to citizen-mycologists. The project was initiated in 2019 by MYCOmmunity Applied Mycology and involves a number of organisations and volunteers from a wide variety of backgrounds.

The project has several ongoing components:

• Gathering baseline data about Australian fungi by training volunteers to collect and submit fungarium specimens along with DNA samples. The DNA samples will then have conserved regions sequenced using a MinION portable DNA sequencer.
• Developing metabarcoding methods for fungi using the MinION.
• Developing simple, fast and inexpensive methods to determine presence/absence of species of interest in environmental samples. The pilot study developed LAMP primers that can show presence or absence of the invasive Favolaschia calocera with a colour change.
• Training citizen-mycologists in eDNA methods and using them to gather data about fungal ecology.

By utilizing DNA technology along with an engaged and passionate citizen-mycology community we believe that data about fungal ecology and taxonomy in Australia can be rapidly increased over the next few years.

Biography:

Biographies to come