A COMPARISON OF SOIL FUNGAL COMMUNITIES OF WATERLESS ZONE AND WET ZONE FORESTS USING A METAGENOMIC APPROACH

Author (s) : Mrs. M. GOMATHI, Ms. K. GAYATHRI, Ms. S. SHENBAGAVALLI

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Abstract :
A preliminary soil meta genomic study was done to investigate and compare soil fungal diversity in two selected ecological zones in Sri Lanka. Wet evergreen forest, Kitulgala Makandawa forest reserve, was selected to represent wet zone and dry mixed ever green forest, Dimbulagala forest reserve was selected to represent the dry zone. Dimbulagal was specially selected because no research has been done in Dimbulagala for the past 30 years. Total of 9535 reads were obtained. After subjecting to quality assurance and filtering, data were analyzed in each community separately. Total of 815 Operational Taxonomic Units (OUT) were found in Kitulgala tropical rain forest and 1070 OTUs were found in Dimbulagala forest soil. Dimbulagala sample harbored high number of Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs) compared to the Kitulgala sample. Members of Ascomycota were the highest in both samples and a high species and genus diversity was also observed. Many species have not been reported in Sri Lanka based on the previous literature. Unique species and genera were found in each sample inferring community level differentiation. This could be due to the differences in flora and fauna, climatic and geographic differences. As predicted, many fungal species were found with industrial or high economic value. Therefore, further research to isolate such species should be conducted to reap the benefits of these hidden treasures of our soils.

Keywords : soil, fungal diversity

Conference Date : 13/11/2020

Pages : 122

Paper ID : 20122