Multi-gene metabarcoding of fungi
This study is the first metabarcoding performance analysis of two protein low-copy DNA regions, the second largest subunit of RNA polymerase II gene (rpb2) and the transcription elongation factor 1-alpha gene (ef1-alpha), and two subregions of general fungal barcode marker (ITS rDNA region) tested on fungal mock communities of three unrelated basidiomycete genera Dermoloma (Tricholomataceae), Hodophilus (Clavariaceae) and Russula (Russulaceae). The aim is to compare species recovery, sequencing data quality, complexity of data filtering, consistency of similarity threshold among taxonomic groups, and application of reference data for species identification.