Ema Corro from MYCOmmunity Applied Mycology Inc. in Australia presented at London Calling 2021 on “How MinION sequencing is opening up new possibilities in citizen science and fungal conservation.” I have been thinking about citizen science and community engagement lately. I thought this session would help. Corro spoke about fungi as vital to ecosystem health. They noted that few Australian fungi have been assessed for risk of extinction. Corro noted that some fungi are difficult to quantify. Citizen science helps by engaging community members as they find fungi.
In many cases, people individually send samples for sequencing abroad! Corro shared how citizen scientists have learned sequencing and bioinformatics to, for example, learn if fungi are edible. However, sending fungi abroad violates the Nagoya protocol for protection against biopiracy. The main organization involved in the project is working with citizen scientists to adapt methods. They are considering using LAMP primers to detect color changes that can be detected in the field. However, genomic data is needed. Thus, Nanopore sequencing could be useful for barcoding and environmental DNA sequencing. This session provided ideas for citizen science projects and opportunities to engage participants!
