More about #mycelia4bees

Not only will we be doing biomaterial workshops (tomorrow and next Thursday) to make a smaller version of the 'fruit bowl' with local school kids, we received our MinION flowcell and the latest reagents for Nanopore sequencing yesterday. This will make a big difference for the metagenomic assessment of biodiversity, in comparison to the 'one by one' sequence results we have to date! One example of this is shown below.

 

The gel and results for one set of species IDs (genus Cortinarious for B and C, and species crassus for B) from individual samples

Sample E did indeed turn out to be a local 'turkeytail' - Trametes versicolor. Tests of other systems to extract DNA from dirt samples are projected, obviously, given the empty lane D. (Only one dirt sample gave some weak mITS1/4 product, to date...)

The BeeMoS system data communication tests have been promising, as the weather is cooling down (finally). Whether the scale system we are implementing will be robust enough, remains to be seen.

Happily, we are excited to be participating in a special fungal-themed gathering, soon, the BIOFEST Meraki, from 19-22 October in Astros, Greece.. Maybe you can join in? The deadline to propose your contribution(s) is 1 October!

Please check out the pdf linked below.