内容提要: |
Fungi are hyper-diverse and currently estimated to be over 6 million species. Of the total Fungi, marine Fungi are estimated to be over 10,000 species. The most accepted estimate of total Fungi in the pre-molecular phase was 1.5 million species based on Fungi: Plant ratio of 6:1. However, with the advent of recent molecular methods, the current estimate is ca. 6 million. Thus, molecular methods can aid in a rapid global inventory of these speciose group of organisms when compared with traditional morphology-based methods. To accelerate the fungal diversity characterization, ITS has been accepted as the Fungal barcode. Within ITS, the ITS1 and ITS2 are equally useful in revealing the fungal community composition. Further, the choice of metabarcoding primers limits the detection of fungal diversity. In conclusion, primer pairs should be evaluated for specificity, coverage, and amplification efficiency prior to their use in fungal community studies that focus on their estimation. |