Application of Using DNA Barcoding Genes in Identification of Fungi Species, a Review

Kingdome fungi are characterized by having a great biological diversity on land and plays important role as organic materials degraders in ecosystems. Although there are more than 1.5 million species of fungi colonizing our land, the numbers of fungi species identified are less than 5 % of fungi species expected to exist, This is because of using traditional methods that are based on morphological characteristics for identification of fungi species. Currently, DNA sequences based identification (DNA barcoding) has became as an effective method for identification and taxonomic studies of known and unknown fungal species. Moreover, DNA barcoding has been shown to be more reliable, accurate and quick identification method for genus to species level. In this paper, The history of DNA barcoding in fungi was introduced and application of using most useful DNA barcoding genes in identification of fungi species were shortly reviewed at topics including internal transcribed spacer (ITS) of rDNA, the 28S rRNA (the nuclear large subunit, LSU), and the 18S rRNA gene (the nuclear small subunit, SSU), beta-tubulin (BT), Translation elongation factor 1 alpha (TEF-1 alpha), Second largest subunit of RNA polymerase II (RPB2), minichromosome maintenance protein (MCM7), and Glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH). Universal primers of DNA barcodes genes for fungi identification were included as well.