Construction and application of reference databases for plant quarantine fungi in China

Abstract:

In recent years, quarantine pests, especially phytopathogenic fungi, posed serious threats to the biological security of China. Thus, the reinforcement of defense systems for those invasive fungal species is essential to prevent alien biological threats. Due to the lack of reference materials and basic databases related to those phytopathogenic fungi, the identifications of these quarantine fungi remain ineffective, posing high risks of biological invasion that may lead to significant economic losses and ecological damages. In view of the shortcomings in the inspection and quarantine of important invasive fungal species, we established a reference database, which includes reference information from the voucher specimens, including the standard molecules, morphological characteristics, and multi-locus reference sequences. An integrative online identification and inspection platform was established by integrating multiple computer packages, including platform for initial multi-objective inspection of fungal species from quarantine samples, and the "one-stop shop" identification package of fungal species based on multi-locus sequences. The database can be freely accessed at website:www.casbrc.org/pqfungi. Construction of the reference databases and inspection platforms may greatly enhance the inspection efficiency of alien fungal pathogens, and have been playing increasingly important role in the construction of "intelligent customs" of China.