Continental‐scale metagenomics, BLAST searches, and herbarium specimens: The Australian Microbiome Initiative and the National Herbarium of Victoria

Abstract

Due to their fundamentally microscopic nature and their usually ephemeral reproductive structures (e.g., mushrooms, apothecia, etc.), the identification of fungi has historically been exceptionally difficult, relying on often artificial groupings based on limited morphological features. The advent and maturation of molecular approaches has revolutionized mycology; in the past two decades, a significant number of new orders, classes, and even phyla have been described (