A Molecular Phylogeny of the Lichen Genus Lecidella Focusing on Species from Mainland China

Abstract

The phylogeny of Lecidella species is studied, based on a 7-locus data set using ML and Bayesian analyses. Phylogenetic relationships among 43 individuals representing 11 Lecidella species, mainly from mainland China, were included in the analyses and phenotypical characters studied and mapped onto the phylogeny. The Lecidella species fall into three major clades, which are proposed here as three informal groups–Lecidella stigmatea group, L. elaeochroma group and L. enteroleucella group, each of them strongly supported. Our phylogenetic analyses support traditional species delimitation based on morphological and chemical traits in most but not all cases. Individuals considered as belonging to the same species based on phenotypic characters were found to be paraphyletic, indicating that cryptic species might be hidden under these names (e.g. L. carpathica and L. effugiens). Potentially undescribed species were found within the phenotypically circumscribed species L. elaeochroma and L. stigmatea. Additional sampling across a broader taxonomic and geographic scale will be crucial to fully resolving the taxonomy in this cosmopolitan genus.

Molecular mechanisms underlying stress response and adaptation

“…Suaeda salsa produces nitric oxide to protect adventitious root formation under waterlogged conditions . Compared to xerophytes, two halophytes were more tolerant to waterlogging and dry‐moist cycles during emergence under saline conditions …”

“…18,34,91,[177][178][179] Compared to xerophytes, two halophytes were more tolerant to waterlogging and dry-moist cycles during emergence under saline conditions. 17,[180][181][182][183] Because of the availability of molecular approaches, Arabidopsis thaliana is an ideal model system to characterize responses to different environmental stresses. [184][185][186][187] When exposed to enhanced UVB radiation, the sad2-1 mutant Arabidopsis thaliana strain accumulates more UV absorption materials and endogenous ABA and activates ROSscavenging enzymes.…”

High levels of endemism and local differentiation in the fungal and algal symbionts of saxicolous lecideoid lichens along a latitudinal gradient in southern South America

“…Lecidella -ITS ( Fig. 4): To bring the new accessions of Lecidella from sSA into a global context, the species concept and most of the published accessions of Zhao et al (2015) were used. Additionally, to this dataset several sequences from Genbank and from the project framework of the first author were added.…”

“…(Lecideaceae), most belong to other genera and families, such as Carbonea, Lecidella (Lecanoraceae), Porpidia, Poeltidea and Cyclohymenia (Lecideaceae). In addition to their morphological similarities, lecideoid lichenized fungi are strongly associated with green microalgal photobionts of the cosmopolitan class Trebouxiophyceae (Buschbom and Mueller 2004;Hertel 1984;Ruprecht et al 2012a;Ruprecht et al 2016;Schmull et al 2011;Zhao et al 2015).…”

“…Extensive collections, especially from the southern hemisphere are very often older than 50 years, which precludes the use of molecular methods, because of the common problem of DNA degradation in mycobiont specimen older than 20 years. During the last decade, molecular re-evaluations have helped to redefine the species concepts behind these diverse groups but were mostly focused on the northern hemisphere (Buschbom and Mueller 2004;Orange 2014;Schmull et al 2011;Zhao et al 2015;Zhao et al 2016) and Antarctica 2012b), although the links to a better understanding of distribution-and speciation patterns in the group are still largely missing. Meanwhile, intermediate latitudes in the southern hemisphere remain understudied and recently published results (Ruprecht et al 2016) have emphasized the extent of the knowledge gap in southern South American lecideoid lichens, not only from the mycobiont perspective but also from that of the associated green microalgae.…”