ITS metabarcoding of filamentous fungi in traditional biodegradation of Carapa Guianensis seeds from the Brazilian Amazon.

The relationship between microbial communities and traditional processing techniques represents a crucial intersection of cultural heritage and biological diversity. To provide the first detailed molecular characterization of this process for andiroba (Carapa guianensis) seeds, this study employed ITS1 and ITS2 metabarcoding with two primary objectives: (1) to characterize and compare the fungal communities across three distinct management systems (agroforestry, consortium, and native forest) in the Brazilian Amazon, and (2) to identify core fungal taxa and their ecological interactions. Our analysis characterized a diverse mycobiome dominated by the phylum Ascomycota, with the generaArthrinium, Aspergillus, Penicillium, andTalaromyces being most prevalent. In our dataset, ITS1 recovered more ASVs (215) than ITS2 (117), and we observed the unexpected finding of lower fungal diversity in the agroforestry system compared to the consortium system. These findings bridge traditional ecological knowledge with modern biotechnology, validating an ancestral practice while uncovering a rich fungal consortium with significant potential for future industrial applications.