Oral: Metagenomics and the Phytobiome
71-O
Metabarcoding the soybean seed core mycobiome
R. PEDROZO (1), A. Jumpponen (1), C. Little (1) (1) Kansas State University, U.S.A.
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The goal of this study was to explore the soybean seed core mycobiome using next-generation sequencing. Eight seed samples, representing four different locations in the state of Kansas and two soybean genotypes, were used. Seeds were surface disinfested with a 5% bleach solution (0.525% NaOCl v/v) for 1 min and dried overnight at room temperature. DNA was extracted from each ground soybean sample. After amplification of the ITS region, using ITS1F and tagged ITS4 primers, amplicons were sequenced using the Illumina MiSeq platform. Approximately 170,000 high-quality reads were produced from all samples analyzed in this study. Sequences from each sample were then taxonomically assigned using the Fungal ITS classifier from the Ribosomal Database Project (RDP). Initial analysis showed that both non-pathogenic fungi, such as Alternaria sp., Epicoccum sp. and Cladosporium sp., as well as pathogens such as Cercospora sp., Phomopsis sp. and Fusarium sp. were observed in all locations and genotypes. To better understand the soybean seed core mycobiome and its implication for global food security, additional experiments are underway to explore the presence of seedborne fungi, especially regarding the pathogenic groups, among individual soybean seeds as well as among three major soybean seed tissues including the seed coat, cotyledons, and embryo axis.