About This Project

We will engage and train the local citizen science biological community in the DNA Barcoding of Mushroom species of the Pacific Northwest. Through this project we will possibly identify species, add valuable information to iNaturalist and GenBank, and determine which species require further taxonomic exploration.

Ask the Scientists

What is the context of this research?

Mycology has a proud history of citizen science. For instance beloved children's author Beatrix Potter contributed beautiful and accurate drawings of fungi! While there is debate about how many undiscovered fungi species there are, even conservative estimates are that there are more than a million.

The widespread use of DNA barcoding has caused a major upheaval in mycological taxonomy, with many species being moved into different groups, and changing names many times over. It is an exciting and daunting time in the field! DNA bar coding involves the identification of species using a short segment of DNA.

We became inspired by the efforts of citizen science projects such as the Continental Mycoblitz Project that aim to document fungal diversity using Barcoding.

What is the significance of this project?

This project will allow us to engage members of Vancouver Mycological Society, Open Science Network (which has the equipment needed for DNA extraction, PCR, and gel electrophoresis), and the wider biology community in exploring the vast world of fungi. Participants will learn the essential steps needed to identify mushroom species using DNA barcodes. Specimens and sequences contributed by participants will be submitted to the UBC Herbarium (Beaty Biodiversity Museum) and become available to the broader scientific community.

What are the goals of the project?

The goal of this project is to engage the local biology community in DNA Barcoding of fungi, and lay the foundation so people can explore their passion for mycological research. We will conduct workshops that allow people to learn how to use DNA barcoding, and generate helpful resources on protocols, lessons learnt, write a summary of identified species, and taxonomic areas which could benefit from further exploration. An important part of this project will be connecting with others engaged in barcoding projects, and in academic mycology, to seek guidance and share findings. We will upload high quality photos to iNaturalist with descriptive notes, and sequence data to GenBank so it can inform other research, and liaise with herbariums regarding the vouchering of important specimens.