MycoPins: a metabarcoding-based method to monitor fungal colonization of fine woody debris

Abstract

The MycoPins method described here is a rapid and affordable protocol to monitor early colonization events in communities of wood-inhabiting fungi in fine woody debris. It includes easy to implement field sampling techniques and sample processing, followed by data processing, and analysis of the development of early dead wood fungal communities. The method is based on fieldwork from a time series experiment on standard sterilized colonization targets followed by the metabarcoding analysis and automated molecular identification of species. This new monitoring method through its simplicity, moderate costs, and scalability paves a way for a broader and scalable project pipeline. MycoPins establishes a standard routine for research stations or regularly visited field sites for monitoring of fungal colonization of woody substrates. The routine uses widely available consumables and therefore presents a unifying method for monitoring of fungi of this type.