DNA Barcoding for Identification of Consumer-Relevant Fungi Sold in New York: A Powerful Tool for Citizen Scientists?

Abstract

Although significant progress has been made in our understanding of fungal diversity, identification based on phenotype can be difficult, even for trained experts. Fungi typically have a cryptic nature and can have a similar appearance to distantly related species. Moreover, the appearance of industrially processed mushrooms complicates species identification, as they are often sold sliced and dried. Here we present a small-scale citizen science project, wherein the participants generated and analyzed DNA sequences from fruiting bodies of dried and fresh fungi that were sold for commercial use in New York City supermarkets. We report positive outcomes and the limitations of a youth citizen scientist, aiming to identify dried mushrooms, using established DNA barcoding protocols and exclusively open-access data analysis tools for species identification. Our results indicate that the single-locus nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) DNA barcoding approach allowed for identification of only a subset of all of the samples at the species level, although the generated high-quality DNA barcodes were submitted to three different databases. Our results highlight the need for a curated, centralized, and open access ITS reference database that allows rapid third-party annotations for the benefit of both traditional research as well as the emerging citizen science community.

DNA Barcoding of Nigeria’s Forest Species Listed in CITES and Other Endangered Plant Species of National Interest

“…GenBank and BOLD comparison authenticated the identity of all the plant samples. Although DNA Subway's local nucleotide database allows a rapid search, it has limitations [36]. Based on this fact, GenBank and BOLD were employed in identifying the samples, of which 57.89% were identified at the species level, and 42.11% were identified only at the genus level.…”

Building of an Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS) Gene Dataset to Support the Italian Health Service in Mushroom Identification

“…While many studies aimed at food authentication, in particular seafood, are available [63], few studies applying DNA barcoding for authentication of commercial mushroom products sold on the market have been conducted so far. Raja et al [25] analyzed mushrooms used as food and/or dietary supplement, while Jensen-Vargas et al [64] analyzed dried and fresh fungi that were sold in New York City supermarkets. Another recent survey analyzed more than 3500 mushroom samples collected in 35 countries across Yunnan Province [65].…”

Exploring the Species Diversity of Edible Mushrooms in Yunnan, Southwestern China, by DNA Barcoding

“…[ 49 , 50 ]. There have been several sporadic mushroom molecular diversity surveys of local grocery stores in New York [ 51 ], London [ 52 ], and mushroom dietary supplement from a company called New Chapter, Inc. (Brattleboro, VT, USA) [ 53 ]. However, most of these surveys are geographically limited and had relatively small sample sizes.…”