In this project we investigate the potential threat of alien wood-decaying fungal and bacterial species imported to Germany with logs from African countries. In a first approach we analysed fungal species on imported logs by identification of fruit bodies by DNA sequencing of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) regions ITS1 and ITS2. First results revealed the existence of at least one alien fungus on the logs. As only few fruit bodies were found on the logs we also extracted DNA from mycelium and from wood samples from the outer sapwood layer. For these samples no clear sequences could be derived from direct sequencing of the obtained PCR products suggesting the presence of multiple species in the samples. We will now extended our investigations and do currently analyse whole DNA from mixed samples from each log with a next generation sequencing approach to describe the biome of total fungal and bacterial communities and identify species composition.

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