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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Beltsville, Maryland (BARC) » Beltsville Agricultural Research Center » Mycology and Nematology Genetic Diversity and Biology Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #424239
Research Project: Expansion and Improvement of Plant-Associated Fungal Resources and Associated Descriptive Data in the U.S. National Fungus Collections and Databases

Location: Mycology and Nematology Genetic Diversity and Biology Laboratory

Title: New additions to the fungal diversity of Guyana

Author
item JACOBSEN, FRODE - Oak Ridge Institute For Science And Education (ORISE)
item KELLOFF, CAROL - Smithsonian Institute
item Castlebury, Lisa

Submitted to: Studies in Mycology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/5/2025
Publication Date: 9/23/2025
Citation: Jacobsen, F., Kelloff, C., Castlebury, L.A. 2025. New additions to the fungal diversity of Guyana. Studies in Mycology. 10. Article e019. https://doi.org/10.48130/sif-0025-0019.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.48130/sif-0025-0019

Interpretive Summary: In 1983, the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) initiated a program to study, document, and preserve the biological diversity in Guyana, which was relatively unexplored at that time. Approximately 550 fungal collections were made and stored for about 40 years, either at NMNH or the United States National Fungus Collections (BPI). DNA and physical characteristics were used for identification. Approximately 100 high-quality DNA sequences from the 551 specimens were obtained and included in this study. A total of 76 fungal species were identified with some that had never been recorded before either in nature or in Guyana. Ecologists, plant pathologists, botanists and other natural resources professionals will use this information to track and Identify fungi that may have an important role in the development of natural pharmaceuticals, potential biocontrol agents, and as plant pathogens.

Technical Abstract: DNA barcoding is today a standard method used for species identification, preferably in conjunction with supporting morphological data. Here, we employed DNA barcoding using the highly conserved nuclear ribosomal Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS) region to identify a large set of dried fungal sporocarp specimens that were collected in Guyana between 1982 and 2005. Nearly half of the 551 specimen collections sampled lacked determinations below family level (indets). Our study yielded 103 ITS barcode sequences and resulted in the identification of 11 species and 3 genera previously not described from Guyana. Thirty-three of the indets were identified to species level and another five were identified to generic level. Our study highlights the importance of herbarium reference specimens as sources of reliable reference barcode sequences for accurate species identification of unknown source DNA. Future barcoding efforts would benefit greatly from utilizing a multilocus approach and next-generation sequencing platforms.