CULLMAN, Ala. – Dozens of budding and seasoned naturalists of all ages converged on Sportsman Lake Park’s Wildflower Garden on Saturday, Aug.19, 2023, with one common goal: collecting specimens to gather data and learn more about one of biology’s lesser studied taxonomic kingdoms – mycology. Mycology, or the study of fungi, refers to yeasts, molds and mushrooms found throughout the world.
Through the balmy morning hours, attendees collected 46 specimens to be sent to various processing facilities for DNA sequencing to gather data and further information on
under-documented species of fungi.
“Mycology is incredibly behind in biologic sciences. About half of everything I sequence out of Alabama has no sequence on record,” stated Alisha Millican, president of Alabama Mushroom Society, when discussing the critical role the “Mycoblitz” plays in gathering data.
Data collected from the foray will be processed, and specimens that have a DNA sequence successfully generated will be uploaded to GenBank, a sequence database that is an open-access, annotated collection of all publicly available nucleotide sequences and their protein translations. GenBank is produced and maintained by the National Center for Biotechnology Information as part of the International Nucleotide Sequence Database Collaboration.
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