Project Number: 5350-22000-017-04
Project Type: Specific Cooperative Agreement

Start Date: Aug 30, 2007
End Date: Sep 30, 2009

Objective:
The goal of this program is to develop a macroarray-based method that could be used in the analysis of fungal community composition and function in orchard ecosystems, for rapid identification of prominent taxa in mixed samples, and that is also more accessible and flexible than current options.

Approach:
As a more easily accessible and cost-effective technology relative to slide-based DNA arrays, we will utilize nylon membranes as the printing medium with a colormetric labeling and detection system. To avoid the time and costs needed to design and validate oligonucleotide probes, we will employ the entire internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region (ITS1/5.8S/ITS2) of the fungal ribosomal DNA as both the target and the probe. The fungal ITS regions are well known to be particularly useful for species-level distinctions in fungi. While the 5.8s region is generally conserved, the ITS1 and ITS2 regions are quite variable and collectively should allow maximal potential for distinguishing fungal taxa. Documents SCA with WSU. Formerly 5350-22000-012-09S (02/08).