Taxonomic Identification of Fungi from Sagebrush Leaves

This project characterized fungi isolated from sagebrush leaves by applying molecular and microscopic techniques. Genomic DNA was extracted from the fungal isolates, after which the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region was amplified and sequenced using Sanger sequencing. The resultant ITS sequences were subsequently analyzed using the Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST) to accurately identify the fungal species present. In addition, microscopy was employed to examine the morphological features of the isolates. A phylogenetic tree was constructed by incorporating ITS sequences from the isolated fungi alongside external fungal sequences obtained from NCBI. This integrative approach provided comprehensive insights into the taxonomy and evolutionary relationships of fungi associated with sagebrush.