Identification of fungi based on the nucleotide sequence homology of their internal transcribed spacer 1 (ITS1) region.

In this study, we examined the identification of fungi based on the sequence homology of the internal transcribed spacer 1 (ITS1) region. A newly designed primer pair could amplify the target region of all 42 strains tested. The PCR products were sequenced and the sequence homologies were searched by BLAST. It was demonstrated that this method is a reliable identification method at the genus or species level. At present, available databases are still insufficient to identify some fungi, but with the accumulation of further data in the ITS1 database, this method will be available for the identification of fungi.