DNA Sequencing Resources for Mycology

Hello Forums! I’m an amateur mycologist, and I’m looking for DNA sequencing resources, since I’m starting to amass a collection of dried specimens now. In the recent past, I’ve sent samples of my dried specimens to Kyle Canan at the Ohio Mushroom DNA Lab. Sadly, he’s currently not accepting specimens (so I’ve heard) and I’m really hoping the ones I sent in before I knew he wasn’t accepting specimens still get processed eventually. Anyways:

Does anyone know of a lab or individual in the U.S. who is willing to accept any number of specimens, and have them sequenced for free? I’ve heard of Mycota Labs during MycoBlitzes, but they only allow for 10 samples to be sent in per person, and I have a lot more than 10 (it costs money above 10) and I’m also 15 so I’m really not able to afford much. And the situation with OMDL is quite shrouded in mystery right now. Any inputs would be greatly appreciated :>

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Since this topic is not specifically related to iNaturalist, I moved it to the Nature Talk section.

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Your best bet is probably to talk to your local mycology club. Many of them have DNA barcoding projects and will do DNA sequencing for free (or a small fee). Local universities, museums, and herbariums are also potential resources for getting sequencing done, although this generally depends on being able to plug into some pre-existing project. Good luck!

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We’re working on processing at OMDL, we just have backlog we need to get through before we begin accepting more specimans. Remember, none of us at OMDL get paid - we’re entirely volunteer, so we appreciate your patience. There’s no mystery, and by the way you’re always welcome to reach out to our facebook group here https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61554081029028 if you have any questions.

To take off my professional voice for a moment though - it stings to open up a thread like this and see the negative commentary on a public forum instead of just reaching out to the group. We all work hard, for free, and the mycology sequencing community is quite tight knit. Just some gentle advice to keep the people behind the screen in mind.

There are some states that Mycota is accepting unlimited specimans for. Check this project to see if your state is on the list. https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/the-mycomap-network

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I’m sorry, I didn’t intend to spread any negativity through this. I wasn’t in any way trying to be rude. I’m not really on social media sites like FB, so everything I hear about your guys’ work is passed down to me from second hand (hence why it’s a bit mysterious to me), and I’m not able to reach out directly via those platforms - that’s why I posted this here. I appreciate all the work you guys do. All I knew was that OMDL wasn’t taking specimens, nothing else.

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Understood! If you have a discord, we do have a discord set up - it isn’t the most active discord in the world, but a couple of us regularly monitor it for questions.

We are working on a tool for folks to check sequence status; once we have it ready and working right, I’ll definitely post that in my profile, and I usually try to keep relevant updates noted there. We’re hoping to really streamline some stuff once we open up again, so there will be a few protocol changes once that happens - but I’ll post when we do, and honestly probably make a journal post about it.

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Besides OMDL you can check with

  • North American Mycological Association https://namyco.org/interests/dna-sequencing/ < this link has a nice flowchart & other resources too
  • your local mycological society, club, association, etc
  • Fungal Diversity Survey (FunDiS) https://www.fundis.org/ < check if your local club(s) or fellow mycologists/amateur mycologists have projects going already, or follow up on it yourself
  • https://mycota.com/ < check Mycoblitz dates or you can try reaching out if you have something potentially special & well-documented and they might be interested (this is my limited understanding, anyway)
  • reaching out to individual professional mycologists/researchers if you have specific interests that fit theirs and are willing to work 1:1 with them might work (you’d look for them in the scientific literature, listed at local universities, herbaria/fungaria, other similar institutions)
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