Comparison of Culturing and Metabarcoding methods to describe the fungal microbiome of a Dutch forest soil along a gradient of CaCO3 treatments

Abstract

Metabarcoding has gained popularity over traditional culturing methods as a more effective way to assess fungal biodiversity. Despite its potential, it still lacks the precision and taxonomic resolution of conventional methods. To improve species identification, a large, well-supported, and updated database is needed. Therefore, traditional culturing methods are still indispensable for describing new species. Both techniques were applied in the context of soil acidification in a Dutch temperate forest, to characterize the effect on the soil mycobiome. This study found that metabarcoding was the more accurate method for describing soil biodiversity, while culturing provided better taxonomic resolution. Additionally, with the culturing approach some potentially new species have been identified. Combining metabarcoding and culturing approaches on the same samples can improve identification of taxa present in soil and add novel and better-categorized species relevant to the field of inquiry.