OMDL Inaugural Paper

ABSTRACT

The Ohio Mushroom DNA Lab (OMDL), a motivated group of community mycologists, present an approach to better understand and map fungal diversity via high-throughput DNA barcoding. Operating within a grassroots community science framework, OMDL focuses on widespread DNA barcoding of macrofungal specimens at zero cost to the public. Community scientists submitted 2,304 specimens primarily from North America, for DNA barcoding of the nrITS region using an Oxford Nanopore sequencing platform and the results are presented here. The overall success rate was lower than anticipated, however several methodological challenges were identified. Exactly 1,146 new ITS sequences were generated and deposited to Genbank. The adjusted success rate was approximately 65%, after excluding failures due to preventable issues. Novel and noteworthy results include 94 new provisional species codes and 367 new distribution reports. Approximately 58% of successfully sequenced fungi were identified to an existing validly published species, ~41% to a provisional species code, and 1% require further investigation. This standardized protocol for summarizing results and highlighting discoveries could be a template for other biodiversity projects using high-throughput DNA barcoding.