2019-04

Annual Conference of Microbiological Society

Orchid seeds require a fungal symbiont for successful germination. The Illumina MiSeq platform was used to carry out analysis of the fungal community in the soil from around bee orchid plants (Ophrys apifera). Soil samples from three sites on the University of Liverpool campus were investigated using Illumina amplicon sequencing of the ITS region to identify potential mycorrhiza fungi. The data were initially analysed using Qiime1, although this has not been officially supported since the end of 2017. Qiime2, the replacement, is the same as Qiime1, but with more features such as more streamlined workflows. Also, it is open source and tools can be added as plugins (https://qiime2.org). Taxonomic assignment was used for analysis of the read sequences to define Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs). All sequences were clustered at 97% similarity and then reads were binned against a reference collection of the UNITE database which is a curated rDNA sequence database for Ascomycota and Basidiomycota and only involves high-quality sequences of well-identified fungi. There were significant differences between the fungal communities of the three sites as shown by using Kruskal-Wallis (KW) tests for comparing the alpha diversity of fungal OTUs within groups.

2016-08

Annual Conference of Microbiological Society

Mycorrhiza is a crucial symbiotic association between the roots of plants and fungi within the soil environment. The specificity in these partnerships, particularly of the fungal partner is still poorly understood. Orchids require symbiotic fungi in a mycorrhizal association for seed germination and establishment, typically species within the Tulasnellaceae and Ceratobasidiaceae. The distribution of suitable mycorrhizal fungi will therefore affect the distribution of orchid plants. The bee orchid (Ophrys apifera) is considered common in southern England but is less frequent in the north. It has a conspicuous flower spike with individual flowers resembling bees. The species is surprisingly common in urban reclaimed ground where rubble provides suitable well-drained, alkaline and low nutrient conditions.

2010-05

Conference on Biology sciences

A taxonomic study on the genus Penicillium of the family Trichocomaceae (Eurotiales):Ascomycota inhabiting soils in Kurdistan region of Iraq was carried out using phenotypical and cultural characteristics. Twelve taxa have been identified . The identified species were P.aurantiogriseum, P.brevicompactum, P.camemberti, P.citrinum, P.corylophilum, P.digitatum, P.echinulatum, P.funiculosum, P.glabrum, P.roqueforti, P.rugulosum and P.variabile. A total of five species have been reported for the first time from Iraqi soil. The new records include P.aurantiogriseum, P.camemberti, P.corylophilum, P.echinulatum, and P.variabile. A brief description based on cultural and morphological characteristics is provided for each species. A dichotomous key in provided to facillate the identification of the reported species.

2008-05

Conference on Biology sciences

A taxonomic study of Aspergillus section Nigri (formerly A.niger group) inhabiting soil at Kurdistan region of Iraq was carried out using phenotypical and cultural characteristics. Identification of the important and most common black aspergilli remains problematic due to the variability of phenotypic features. Five species of Aspergillus section Nigri have been identified. These include A.awamori, A.carbonarius, A.foetidus, A.japonicus, A.niger. The four former species are newly recorded for Iraqi soil. Abrief description based on cultural and morphological characteristics is provided for each species. A key is provided to facilitate the identification of the reported species.