Testing the probability of finding major decomposing basidiomycetes in logs with T-RFLP - implications for field sampling

• In this article we examine the limitations and potential of T-RFLP for the accurate detection of fungal species in dead wood. We collected cross-sections of decayed logs to evaluate the number of fungal species domains that are likely to be hit when drilling a sawdust sample from a log. We used these estimates to simulate the number of species that would be found using a certain number of samples. We found that in 99% of the simulations, 4 or fewer species would be contained in a sample. Based on these results we tested the probability of detecting two species of wood-decaying basidiomycetes at three different DNA concentration ratios: 1:1, 1:5 and 1:20. An additional experiment was done with 3-5 species. It was possible to detect all species at ratios higher than 1:20 but lower than 1:5; in this range all peaks were easily detected. We were able to detect all species in the mixtures of 3-5 species, with extracts from both pure cultures and wood.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Biologi -- Genetik (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Biological Sciences -- Genetics (hsv//eng)

Publication and Content Type

vet (subject category)

ovr (subject category)