Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS) as Dna Barcoding to Identify Fungal Species: a Review
Abstract: Despite the fact
that fungi are important sources of both bioactive compounds and mycotoxins,
and that they are very ubiquitous in our environment, their species
identification is hampered by incomplete and often unclear literature. Fungi
identification is primarily based on their phenotypic and physiological
characteristics. Nowadays, many molecular methods to identify fungal species
have been developed. One of the methods considered as a new concept to rapidly
and accurately identify unknown fungal sample is DNA Barcoding. This literature
review will outline the use of DNA barcoding approach to rapidly identify
fungal species and the use of ITS region that recently has been designated as
primary DNA barcode for fungal kingdom. “DNA barcode” is a short, highly
variable and standardized DNA region with approximately 700 nucleotides in
length, which is used as a unique pattern to identify living things. Internal
Transcribed Spacer (ITS) region of nuclear DNA (rDNA) has become the most
sequenced region to identify fungal taxonomy at species level, and even within
species. ITS region is a highly polymorphic non-coding region with enough
taxonomic units. Therefore, it is able to separate sequences into species
level. Even though ribosomal ITS as a universal barcode marker for fungi is
still hampered by few limitations, the ITS will remain as the key choice for
fungal identification. The search for alternative regions as DNA marker to
improve fungal identification, especially in specific heredities, has already
started.
Keywords: DNA barcoding,
fungal diversity, Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS) , molecular identification,
universal barcode
Author: Nurrahmi Dewi
Fajarningsih
Journal code: jpperikanangg160031
