DNA Study For Morel Classifications
If you have not yet participated in this study, please do so. We are especially looking for morels now in the extreme locations. Click this link to go to the mushroomexpert.com site that has all of the info on where and how to send in your samples.
Recent Post By: Dr. Kuo
Michael Kuo
Hi everybody!
Just finished lots of new stuff for morel hunters, so I'll link up everything below. Morels were found here in Illinois several weeks ago, but then we got covered with snow. Things are warming up now, though, so the season may start for real soon.
The Morel Data Collection Project is back online. Thanks to everyone for your patience; as many of you know, the online data was lost when MushroomExpert.Com switched servers last year.
I've redesigned the MDCP Database, and begun the mammoth task of re-entering all the data, photos, collectors' notes, DNA testing results, and so on. I entered all the 2005 collections first, so that last year's contributors could see their collections. E-mails to contributors will be going out over the next few days. I also entered all the collections prior to 2004 (1996-2003), and started entering the 2004 collections. In all, about a third of the data has been entered, and I will get the rest of it done over the next few weeks.
I created a page summarizing Preliminary Results from the study of MDCP mushrooms, so that folks can see at a glance what we have discovered so far through study of all the wonderful contributions.
The page describing and illustrating the MDCP Morel Taxa has been updated to reflect all 16 Genetically Distinct Morels that DNA study has revealed in the MDCP. I'm sorry for using the pretentious terms "taxa" and "genetically distinct morels," but we can't officially call them "species" at this point, since the results are preliminary and not published in an official scientific setting.
I wrote a page on identifying North American morels by looking at their physical features, called Identifying Morels with Morphology, in which I discuss why it is that we can't always identify species by looking at them, and provide a key for identifying morels (4 of the 16 North American morels can be identified easily by examining their features, and the remaining 12 can be identified as belonging to one of 4 species groups). I have also provided discussion of some of the morel "species" that DNA studies indicate are probably not valid, including "Morchella crassipes," "Gray Morels" (in the eastern and midwestern sense), and "Pickles and Conicas."
For 2006, the MDCP is seeking morel contributions from limited areas. I wish I did not have to limit the contributions--and I hope to be able to "open it up wide" again in the future, but the simple truth is that I do not have time to process the number of collections we received in 2003 and 2004, and Dr. Carter and Dr. O'Donnell don't have the resources or time to test the DNA of morels at that rate. Though it would be best to have thousands of morels in the MDCP, time and money (it costs about $40 to DNA sequence one morel!) require that we turn the focus of the study to areas we have only a few mushrooms from. So, here's the geographic "want list":
Sorry about the long post, but I thought folks might want to see all the new stuff. Good luck this season!