The Four-Day National Workshop on the Polyphasic Identification of Macrofungi got underway here today at the Department of Botany, University of Jammu, Jammu. The national event which is being organized under the project sanctioned by the National Mission for Himalayan Studies (NMHS), GB Pant National Institute of Himalayan Environment, Kosi-Katarmal, Almora (MoEF & CC, Govt. of India)and supported by the Department of Wildlife Protection, J&K, aims at training research students/young faculty for field explorations and laboratory techniques for the identification and characterization of wild macrofungi which would help them set up their research base at their respective laboratories/institutions through morpho-taxonomic and molecular identification approaches.

Sh. Suresh K. Gupta, IFS and the Chief Wildlife Warden, Jammu and Kashmir was the Chief Guest at the formal inauguration of the National Workshop. Addressing a gathering of the participants, faculty members, research scholars, and students, Mr. Gupta highlighted the significance of the field-oriented training workshops on the characterization of wild mushrooms. “Wild macrofungi or mushrooms are intimately associated with forest ecosystems and support the growth of young and growing forest trees in restoration programs in the degraded lands’, said Mr. Gupta. “For the better management and reclamation of barren lands ectomycorrhizal fungi are the perfect organisms”, he opined. Further, he hoped that such trainings would help distinguish between edible and poisonous mushrooms to avert incidents of mushroom poisoning.  However, in spite of being morphologically, ecologically, nutritionally rich and metabolically diverse group of organisms, wild mushrooms remain both underexplored and understudied. Therefore, such workshops are ardently needed to bring young researchers to take up the challenge of exploration and identification of wild macrofungi to develop their strong database for tapping their potential, he exhorted. While congratulating the Department of Botany, University of Jammu, and the Principal Investigator of the NMHS project Prof Yash Pal Sharma, he assured all support from the Department of Wildlife Protection, J&K for the smooth organization of field explorations at Sudhmahadev Wildlife Conservation Reserve on August 02-03, 2022 and in the future.

Prof Yash Pal Sharma, Principal Investigator of the NMHS project while expressing his gratitude to the Nodal Officer NMHS, Er. Kireet Kumar and the Chief Wild Life Warden,  informed that this field-cum-training workshop has been planned out for studying macrofungal diversity, their habit, habitat, and growth patterns in the field  Participants would be trained for studying morphological details of the collected mushroom specimens, their preservation, drying, and proper storage is the follow-up step after the field exercise.  All this information integrated with the microscopic and anatomical details would help in the correct identification up to the species level. To meet the global standards of data acceptability and publishing high-quality research, practical sessions on the molecular data analysis and the protocols for NCBI-BLAST search for DNA barcoding, sequence editing, alignment of sequences, and submission to GenBank, the molecular databases containing fungal sequences, and methods used in the construction of phylogenetic trees from DNA sequences to facilitate fungal species identification will be discussed and demonstrated in detail. Consequently, thereafter, the conservation, cultivation, and bioprospection of the macrofungi can be followed, authentically and confidently, concluded Prof Sharma.

Earlier, Prof Veenu Kaul, Head,Department of Botany, University of Jammu, Jammu extended a formal welcome to the Chief guest, Resource persons viz., Dr. Dyutiparna Chakaraborty, Dr. Aniket Ghosh and Dr. Manoj Emanuel Hembrom from Botanical Survey of India, Kolkata, Dr. Tahir Mehmood from the Department of Botany, University of Jammu and the research participants from Punjab University, Chandigarh, Punjabi University, Patiala, Delhi University, Kashmir University, SKUAST Jammu, Govt. Degree College, Kishtwar, and the University of Jammu.She expressed her satisfaction on holding such workshops in the Department on regular basis.

Prof Geeta Sumbali, Former Dean of Life Sciences, Prof Namrata Sharma, Prof Susheel Verma, Dr. Sikander Pal, Dr. Harish, Dr. Skarma, Dr. Madhu Raina, Dr. Sajan Thakur, Research scholars, and the students also attend the inaugural proceeding s of the workshop.

Ms. Shiny Singh conducted the proceedings of the inaugural session.