Fungal diversity and community composition in cocoa agroforestry farms across two West African countries using DNA metabarcoding

In this study, we employed DNA metabarcoding using PacBio sequencing to examine fungal community composition and diversity by targeting the ITS region of soils collected from three cocoa agroforestry farms (5, 15 and 30 years old). The results revealed that the Ascomycota and Basidiomycota phyla dominated the communities. The Classes Eurotiomycetes and Dothideomycetes prevailed in the soils of both countries. The 15- and 30 year-old cocoa agroforestry farms recorded the highest number of fungi in both countries, with the most abundant found in soils of Ghana within a depth of 15 to 30 cm. The results of this study confirm that the soils of this cocoa agroecosystem are dominated by the fungal genera Phialophora and Aureobasidium, which can be explored in future studies along with other mycorrhizal fungi regarding sustaina-ble cocoa production under a changing climate in Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire.