Exploring Fungal Diversity of Northeast Missouri

Emily J. Ubbelohde
Dr. William Alexander, Faculty Mentor

Fungi play an integral role in many ecosystems. They occupy crucial niches, such as forming symbiotic relationships with many plants or acting to recycle decaying biological matter back into the food web. Despite their importance to the health of almost all biomes, the fungal diversity of northeast Missouri has not been studied in great detail. Most fungal samples collected have been identified through morphological characteristics by amateur clubs. Superficially, many macroscopic fungal fruiting bodies look identical, which leads to unreliable identification, but most amateurs are unable to afford more objective identification techniques such as genetic sequencing. Thus, introducing a cost-effective, sequence-based identification method would be beneficial to understanding the diversity of these organisms. We have designed and implemented such a technique, and have used it together with classical morphological identification to begin cataloging the diversity of fungal species found within northeast Missouri.

Keywords: Mycology, DNA Sequencing, Fungi, Mushrooms

Topic(s):Biology

Presentation Type: Poster

Session: TBA
Location: TBA
Time: TBA