Location: Mycology and Nematology Genetic Diversity and Biology Laboratory
Project Number: 8042-22000-298-036-I
Project Type: Interagency Reimbursable Agreement
Start Date: Oct 1, 2019
End Date: Dec 31, 2021
Objective:
The primary purpose of this agreement is to support USDA APHIS Enhanced Pest ID and Technology. The specific objective for this agreement is to document through digital imaging and sequence identification of representatives of the most commonly encountered and intercepted fungi housed in the U.S. National Fungus Collections in Beltsville, MD, and other locations to enhance the ability of USDA to prevent the entry of plant-quarantine significant fungi into the U.S.
Approach:
ARS plans to digitize the macroscopic and microscopic features, as well as all associated notes and annotations found within the specimen packets, of approximately 200 fungi utilizing type or other authentic specimens of basidiomycete and ascomycete fungi housed at the U.S. National Fungus Collections in Beltsville, MD, and other locations with emphasis on those most commonly intercepted at ports of entry. In addition to the fungi themselves, all associated material will be imaged and if sufficient material exists, DNA will be extracted and PCR performed to provide a barcode sequence that will include the internal transcribed spacer regions and the 28S nuclear ribosomal DNA regions when possible and when not available from other sources.