title: ITS2 fungi dataset derived from 454 pyrosequencing of DNA isolated from Erica glumiflora roots
design: Surface sterilized root segments retained from washing were initially ground separately using sterile pestle and mortar to improve DNA extraction efficiency. The ZR Plant/Seed MiniPrep  (Catalog #D6020) was used for DNA extraction following the manufacturer s protocol. For each host, five replicate DNA eluate samples were mixed in equal volumes into a single composite sample. PCR was performed separately for each Erica species using the composite samples. The ITS3 and ITS4 primers (White et al. 1990) were used to amplify and tag the ITS2 region of the rDNA (Berry et al. 2011; Davey et al. 2013; De Beek et al. 2014). Fusion primers were synthesized by Whitehead Scientific (Pvt) Ltd according to Roche prior to emulsion PCR. They contained an emulsion 454 pyrosequencing adaptor, a unique specific 10 bp tag sequence known as multiplex identifiers (MIDs) and either the ITS3 or ITS4 primer. The tags were different from each other by at least 3 bp in both directions. These enabled individual sample recognition during sequence analysis after pyrosequencing.