Meeting Abstract
The Peruvian Amazon has not been extensively studied when compared to the Brazilian Amazon. With deforestation being an average of 52 thousand square miles every year, there is an urgent need to sample the species especially those not as widely studied such as fungus. These decomposers are important to the health of the ecosystem, and understanding their phylogeny helps toward understanding their role. The purpose of this study is to collect fungal DNA samples from the Peruvian Amazon and create a new piece of software using existing fungal taxonomy and genetic information to classify the DNA sequences. This method of classification would be faster than current processing times because there would be a centralization of both genetic information as well as characteristic information of the species. To solve this problem, a database of centralized information will allow researchers to easily identify the species of fungus they seek to gain information on. Software will be used to categorize groups of fungi using genetic material and physical appearance. The method of molecular phylogenetic and physical characteristic identifications through the use of a software program, which uses categorical distribution, will allow for quick and efficient identification of fungal species. Currently, samples of Peruvian Amazonian fungal species have been obtained and are being compared to known fungal species. We will use existing fungal information and defined algorithms as parameters, they will be matched to the closest species or genius. Finally their physical characteristics and sequences will be entered into the program in order to determine if the species is known or unknown.
