MLCO 2020-2021 Annual Summary

Published October 2, 2021 · Updated January 4, 2025

The taxonomic arm of CMS was very busy during COVID. They (mostly Bitty Roy) worked on figuring out what our sequences mean. Most people think that when you sequence a mushroom, you get “an answer”. We wish it was that simple. GenBank, the database where sequences go, is a mess because it does not allow second party (non-author) determinations. So, there are many misidentified sequences and many names without the current taxonomy. By using distance trees you can figure out which sequences are most likely misidentified and by using pairwise identity you can figure out which sequences yours match to, but then you have to search for each close match in the literature to see what has happened to its taxonomy. Then, once that is done, if there are remaining questions, we contact specialists. All of this is very time consuming.

In summary we have sequenced 138 fungi since 2019, 81 of which were done this last year and anther 43 are “in line” at the sequencing facility (BOLD). COVID has really slowed sequencing down because all lab supplies (pipette tips and microfuge tubes) are back ordered due to being used in COVID testing.

Of the fungi we have sequenced, 15/138 (10.8%) failed, leaving a remainder of 123 sequenced. Of these 10/123 (8%) are possibly new species–more work is needed to verify this, and the rest have been determined to the best of our ability. Here is a googlesheet with the list of what we have sequenced and our taxonomic determinations.

We include all sequences in the iNat observations, which are thus 100% open to the public. Here is a link to the project where we keep all the observations (269) that have been vouchered, which includes all the ones that have been sequenced.

Below is the summary of the various iNat projects we maintain as of 12 June 21:

Macrofungi of Lane County Oregon