BRUNS, THOMAS D.1., TIMOTHY SZARO, MONIQUE GARDES2, KEN CULLINGS2, JEAN PAN2, D. LEE TAYLOR2, THOMAS HORTON2, ANNETTE KRETZER2, MATTEO GARBELOTTO1, & YUNAN LI2.
1 Depart. Plant & Microb. Biol. Univ. Cal. Berkeley, CA 94720-3102. 2 Six other addresses too numerous to list.
Although RFLP and morphological methods are the primary way in which fungi are identified from unknown mycorrhizae, both approaches leave substantial numbers of unidentified taxa. This problem is particularly acute when these methods are applied to new geographic regions or ecosystems. Sequence analysis of conserved genes is one way to place these unknowns into meaningful higher taxonomic categories. We have developed a database for a small portion of the mitochondrial large subunit rRNA for this purpose. Our database contains 159 sequences representing 84 genera in 18 families of Basidiomycota. Placement of unknowns to most families or subfamilies is strongly supported as evidenced by bootstrap analysis or by other independent molecular methods. Exceptions to this rule include taxa that are placed within the Tricholomataceae, Cortinariaceae, and Entolomataceae; relationships between these families are not well resolved by these data. Other strengths and limitations of the current data and future trends in sequence-based identifications will be discussed. The mtLSU data are available as a text or PAUP file at http://plantbio.berkeley.edu/~bruns/. Try it now and come with questions!