Date of Award

2017

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Natural Sciences

First Advisor

Clore, Amy

Area of Concentration

General Studies

Abstract

The kingdom Fungi consists of a largely diverse array of organisms responsible for the natural decomposition of organic compounds. These organisms are essential for every ecosystem on Earth and can be found all rural, urban and suburban communities. Classification of fungal species in a given environment provides insights into the condition of its ecosystem. In addition, these organisms provide sources of nutrition and alternatives to harsh chemical processes in industry use, such as in the production of paper. This thesis represents an attempt to begin the characterization of the diversity of Southwest Florida fungi in rural, urban and suburban environments by amplification of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of the nuclear ribosomal cistron using polymerase chain reaction. The ITS region is considered a universal barcode for the identification of a wide range of fungal species, in part because of the high probability for successful amplification. In this project, the DNA sequences of this region have allowed for the construction of phylogenetic trees identifying sampled fungi inhabiting the Southwest Florida region. This phylogeny also allowed for the elucidation of the degree of relatedness among these fungi. Through amplification of the ITS region alone, a confident taxonomic ranking to family of the fungal samples was achieved and identified with an 85-100 identity to the query. To narrow down and confirm classification, amplification and sequencing of the large ribosomal subunit gene (28S) was completed and compared with the amplified ITS region. Together, these regions narrowed the identification of fungal specimens to family with certainty.

Download

Share

COinS