Location: Mycology and Nematology Genetic Diversity and Biology Laboratory
Project Number: 8042-22000-327-005-I
Project Type: Interagency Reimbursable Agreement
Start Date: Jul 1, 2023
End Date: Sep 30, 2024
Objective:
The primary purpose of this agreement is to support USDA APHIS Enhanced Pest ID and Technology. The specific objective for this agreement is to document through digital imaging and accessioning of an important reference collection of wood decay fungi acquired from Penn State and housed in the U.S. National Fungus Collections in Beltsville, MD, to enhance the ability of USDA to prevent the entry of forest pathogens into the U.S.
Approach:
ARS plans to curate, accession and digitize the data from specimen packets and labels as well as macroscopic and microscopic features, of type specimens with all associated notes and annotations found within the specimen packets, of approximately 10,000 specimens (200 types) housed in cartons at the U.S. National Fungus Collections in Beltsville, MD. In addition, georeferencing will be performed and all associated material will be imaged. If sufficient material exists, DNA will be extracted and PCR performed to provide a barcode sequence that will include the internal transcribed spacer regions and the 28S nuclear ribosomal DNA regions when possible and when not available from other sources.
