Molecular Characterization of Wild Mushrooms: A Paradigm Shift from Morphotyping

Abstract

The traditional morphological study for the classification and identification of higher organisms depends on the morphotypic features. Development of precise molecular markers and techniques along with statistical tools have aided in identification process to authenticate the existing and widely used morphometry approaches. Significant to the development of barcodes based on DNA sequences in higher eukaryotes which include fungi like mushrooms, marker based molecular approaches have become more reliable and easily usable tools. The present chapter presents a brief overview of the mycological shift from phenotypic to molecular taxonomy. Exploration of various protein encoding and mitochondrial cytochromeoxidase-I barcodes in animals has opened their usage in few higher fungi but due to the presence of intron and lack in resolution has prevented their usage as fungal universal barcode. As proposed by the Consortium for the Barcode of Life in the year 2012, the fungal nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer is considered to be the universal fungal barcode due to its hypervariable and tandem repeated copy number added by its easy amplifiability even with trace amount of nucleic acid.