Molecular identification of some wild macrofungi from Southeastern Nigeria

Mushrooms are grossly under exploited and efforts to domesticate them are not yielding enough results as over 95% of mushrooms consumed in Africa and most parts of the world are still collected from the wild. However, the utility and commercialization of wild mushrooms has been hampered by incorrect morphological identifications. Molecular markers, including the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region, have proven to be efficient in mushroom diversity studies. This research aimed to investigate the diversity of wild mushrooms indigenous to southeast Nigeria. Fifty (50) samples of wild growing mushrooms were collected using opportunistic sampling method in 5 states of the region. Zymo Research Quick-DNA Plant/Seed Miniprep kit was used for DNA extraction, the ITS region was amplified using PCR and subsequently sequenced with Sanger sequencing technology. BLASTn search in Genbank databases were conducted to determine the identity of the sampled mushrooms. Genomic DNA was successfully extracted and amplified, although with varying band quality. Forty-one (41) out of the 50 mushroom samples were successfully sequenced and identified. The identified mushroom species were classified into 11 families with family Polyporaceae (13), Agaricaceae (9), Omphatotaceae (7) and Ganodermataceae (4), topping the list. Trametes (7) and Lentinus (6) were the most abundant genera followed by Neonothopanus (5), and Ganoderma (4). Barcode marker (ITS region) was effective in identifying the wild mushrooms of Southeastern Nigeria.