Coverage of fungal ITS primers.

<p>The percentage of fungal LTUs amplified by ecoPCR is shown for each primer. In each analysis, <i>in silico</i> amplification was conducted using both a target primer and the primer used in construction of the focal subset database; hence, the percentage represents the coverage of the target primer but not that of the primer pairs. From zero to three nucleotide mismatches between the target primer and database sequences were allowed in each analysis (except mismatches in the two bases at the 3′-end of the primer). (a) Forward primers for the small subunit ribosomal RNA gene evaluated with subset 1 (723 LTUs). (b) Reverse primers for the 5.8S ribosomal RNA gene evaluated with subset 2 (3,474 LTUs). (c) Forward primers for the 5.8S ribosomal RNA gene evaluated with subset 2 (3,474 LTUs). (d) Reverse primers for the large subunit ribosomal RNA gene evaluated with subset 3 (1,869 LTUs).