MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERIZATION AND DNA BAR CODING OF MORCHELLA SPECIES GROWING IN DIFFERENT REGIONS

The molecular diversity of 15 different Morchella species collected from three different ecological zones (Chinar, Miandam, and Kalam) of District Swat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan in 2018-2019.Considerable morphological variations exist concerning some species of Morchella, however, classical taxonomy is helpful in the identification of morel species.The focus of this study was morphological, anatomical, and molecular characterization of morel species.Phylogenetic analyses by maximum parsimony, neighbor joining, and maximum likelihood method revealed that majority of species are morphologically like M. esculenta and M. vulgaris.DNA sequence-based phylogenetic analysis may be useful in identifying the morel taxonomy.The DNA consensus sequences were finally aligned and analyzed using FASTA and BLAST sequence format.Morpho-anatomical traits were used to identify four species (M.esculenta (Linn.)Pers., M. vulgaris (Pers.)Boud, M. angusticeps Peck., and M. brunnea M. Kuo, sp.nov) among the collected Morchella specimens.While the two morphologically distinct taxa, such as the Morchella (unidentified) and the M. esculenta clade, were discovered using ITS-1 and ITS-2 sequence data in an internal transcribed spacer (ITS) based molecular approach.These two species have demonstrated phylogenetically shared similarities with M. Brunnea and M. angusticeps.An elaborate study is required to determine the exact limit of genetics and species diversity among all ecotypes on a national scale, which is genotypically adapted to specific ecological environments.here has been a limited effort in Pakistan thus far to identify species using both conventional taxonomy and the most recent DNA techniques.Thus, the goal of the current study is to identify some morel species that grow locally based on their morpho-anthropometric traits, with a focus on their ecological and soil traits.