Project Leader:   
Mary Berbee

Lead Institution:   
University of British Columbia

Technology Applications:   
Barcoding, forest management

Research Funding Program:   
SOF 2

The research team will apply genomic technology to look at the diversity of fungal populations that will lead to forest management practices that protect diversity in BC, the most biologically diverse province in the country.

Barcoding is a Canadian initiative that receives resounding support from the world's scientific community because it provides a strategic approach to systematically characterizing biological diversity. Barcode databases consist of sequences from a small region of DNA from specimens representing diverse species.

Unlike most genomic projects that analyze many genes from one organism, the barcoding project involves applying genomic techniques to sequence one gene from each of 900 fungal specimens from the genera Inocybe and Cortinarius. These fungi grow symbiotically with pines, Douglas fir and hemlock trees, forming ectomycorrhizae, or ‘fungus roots' that help the trees absorb nutrients. However, these fungi are so diverse that even specialists with years of experience studying them are unable to identify many of their species.

Researchers will build lab capacity, gearing up for high-volume DNA extractions and data analysis to enhance our ability to contribute efficiently to the international barcoding initiative. Through public outreach and collaboration in specimen collection and data exchange, this project will foster public involvement in UBC science while helping us to increase the mushroom collections in the new CFI-funded Beaty Biodiversity Museum by 600 specimens.

Because barcodes can be used to construct ecological microarrays or identify fungi from clone libraries, they will be used to correlate species presence and absence with ecological functions. Barcodes will provide a tremendous boost to fungal ecology as a tool for investigating tree interactions with the microbial world.

The sequenced barcodes of carefully identified specimens will serve as a new ‘gold standard' for fungal identification and the biodiversity knowledge base will lead to forest management practices that protect diversity in BC, the most biologically diverse province in Canada.