Scaling up discovery of hidden diversity in fungi: impacts of barcoding approaches.
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rstb.2015.0336.pdf
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454.88 KB
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Resource type
Journal article
Date published
September 5, 2016
Abstract
The fungal kingdom is a hyperdiverse group of multicellular eukaryotes with profound impacts on human society and ecosystem function. The challenge of documenting and describing fungal diversity is exacerbated by their typically cryptic nature, their ability to produce seemingly unrelated morphologies from a single individual and their similarity in appearance to distantly related taxa. This multiplicity of hurdles resulted in the early adoption of DNA-based comparisons to study fungal diversity, including linking curated DNA sequence data to expertly identified voucher specimens. DNA-barcoding approaches in fungi were first applied in specimen-based studies for identification and discovery of taxonomic diversity, but are now widely deployed for community characterization based on sequencing of environmental samples. Collectively, fungal barcoding approaches have yielded important advances across biological scales and research applications, from taxonomic, ecological, industrial and health perspectives. A major outstanding issue is the growing problem of ‘sequences without names’ that are somewhat uncoupled from the traditional framework of fungal classification based on morphology and preserved specimens. This review summarizes some of the most significant impacts of fungal barcoding, its limitations, and progress towards the challenge of effective utilization of the exponentially growing volume of data gathered from high-throughput sequencing technologies.
This article is part of the themed issue ‘From DNA barcodes to biomes’.
Creator (organisation)
Yahr, Rebecca
Schoch, Conrad L.
Dentinger, Bryn T. M.
Funder
| Funder name | Awards |
National Institutes of Health, United States | |
Rural and Environment Science and Analytical Services Division, United Kingdom | |
Journal title
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Volume
371
Issue
1702
Article number
20150336
Publisher
The Royal Society
Place of publication
London, UK
ISSN
0962-8436
eISSN
1471-2970
Date accepted
May 31, 2016
Official URL
Rights statement
In Copyright
Additional information
This article is part of the themed issue ‘From DNA barcodes to biomes’.