All Fungi DNA Barcoding Planning Workshop Agenda

Sunday, 13 May 2007:
1:00-5:00 pm:     Arrival of workshop participants at Smithsonian Conservation and Research Center, Front Royal, Virginia

6:00 pm:              Welcome dinner

Monday, 14 May 2007:

8:30-9:00:       Welcome, introductions, workshop goals (A. Rossman, M, Palm)
Background on DNA Barcoding and CBOL (K. Ferrell/D. Schindel)

9:00-10:30: Session 1. COI AS THE FUNGAL BARCODE REGION – Keith Seifert

The Consortium for the Barcode of Life (CBOL) has accepted COI as the default barcode for higher animals, with the understanding that COI will not work in all subgroups.  However, there are significant advantages to using COI, so CBOL wants researchers to make every effort to use COI before adopting an alternative.  This means testing different extraction methods, developing new primers, testing various thermal cycling patterns, etc.

• How thoroughly has COI been tried in the various subgroups of fungi?
• Have efforts to use COI been sufficient, or should additional approached be tried before looking for an alternative barcode region?

Contributors:
Richard Hamelin
Jean-Marc Moncalv
Pedro Crous
Andre Levesque
Mehrdad Hajibabaei
Keith Seifert

10:30-11:00:  Coffee break

11:00-1:00: Session 2. NON-COI CANDIDATE REGIONS – John Taylor
CBOL has developed draft guidelines and criteria that should be used in selecting the "best" barcode region for a taxonomic group in which COI has proven to be ineffective as a barcode region.  In the event that COI does not prove to be an effective barcode region for fungi, and with these guidelines and criteria in mind,

• What are the other candidate barcode regions for fungi?
• What other candidate regions have been tested in the various subgroups of fungi, and how well do they perform as barcodes?
• What additional sampling, testing and analysis will be needed in order to identify the optimal barcode region for the group?

Contributors:

John Taylor: Introduction
Tom Bruns: Mycorrhizae
Sung-Oui Suh: Barcoding Yeast
François Lutzoni: Lichens and ascos broadly
Todd DeSantis: Fungal arrays
Teun Boekhout: New regions for Barcoding
Barbara Robbertse: New Regions for Barcoding

1:00-2:00:  Lunch

2:00-3:30: Session 3.  NON-COI CANDIDATE REGIONS (continued)

3:30-4:30:  Coffee break and CRC tour

4:30-6:00:  Open discussion and formulation of Action Items

Tuesday, 15 May 2007:

8:30-10:30: Session 4.    SCOPE AND COORDINATION OF POTENTIAL FUNGAL BARCODING PROJECTS – Pedro Crous
A standardized identification system for fungal identification could serve diverse users and stakeholders: fungal taxonomists; biodiversity researchers; microbial ecologists; applied researchers in the food, air quality and other industries; plant quarantine agencies, environmental protection agencies, and other regulatory bodies engaged in control of potentially harmful fungi; land use managers; environmental concerned with the use of beneficial fungi and/or control of harmful fungal species; and others.  The following issues need to be addressed in light of these diverse users and their needs:

• Priorities for barcoding projects.
• Species checklists.
• Geographic sampling.
• Sampling scheme.

Contributors

Karen Hughes

Emma Steenkamp

Ursula Eberhardt

10:30-11:00:  Coffee break

11:00-1:00: Session 5. LOGISTICS OF A FUNGAL BARCODE INITIATIVE – Rytas Vilgalys
How should a Fungal Barcode Initiative be conducted?  The following logistical obstacles will need to be overcome:

• Usability of existing collections. 
• Sources of specimens. 
• Identification of voucher specimens. 
• Curation/documentation of vouchers.
• Lab facilities. 
• Specimen transfer. 
• Data management. 
• Data ownership and sharing. 
• Potential Users.
• Publication and use of results.
• Funding.

Contributors:
Joe Bischoff
Urmas Koljag
Clete Kurtzman
Martha Powell
Andrew Miller
Martin Bitardondo

1:00-2:00:  Lunch

2:00-3:30: Session 6.  Additional topics i.e. ancient DNA and use of collections; integration/coordination with AFTOL
3:30-4:00:  Coffee break

4:00-5:30:  Open discussion and formulation of Action Items
5:30:  Workshop adjourns and vans leave for airports

Click here to see images from the meeting