The First Report on the Molecular Identification of Wild Macroscopic Fungi Oudemansiella australis G. Stev. and G. M. Taylor from La Union, Philippines

Abstract

Towards the effort of documenting mushroom resources in the Philippines, precise identification usingnucleotide base approaches and geo-tagging activities were conducted in this study. Often times,identification of macroscopic fungi or mushroom species was done using morphological methods. Due tothe growing potential of mushrooms as food, nutraceutical and or medicinal applications, sources of wherethese important mushrooms can be found must seriously be taken into consideration. The first report onthe molecular identification of macroscopic fungi collected in La Union, Philippines was carried out byamplifying its ITSnrDNA region. Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST) analysis of the amplifiedgene region the wild macroscopic fungi has 98.07% identity to Oudemansiella australis with accession numberAF321473. The morphology of the basidiocarp was also determined for proper documentation. Phylogenytree was also rendered using the MEGA X software based on the ITS sequence of the mushroom.