Profiling walnut pathobiome associated with walnut dieback using community-targeted DNA metabarcoding
Metabarcoding sequencing of 5 mock communities with 5 primer pairs targeting ITS, ITS1 or ITS2 region and metabarcoding sequencing of environmental samples of walnut husks and twigs showing walnut dieback symptoms with 2 primer pairs targeting ITS2 region. The goal of the study was to determine the most suitable bioinformatic approach to asses the fungal diversity and relative abundance of fungi associated with walnut dieback symptoms with a focus on the fungal pathogens responsible for the disease.