More than you can see: Unraveling the ecology and biodiversity of lichenized fungi associated with leaves and needles of 12 temperate tree species using high-throughput sequencing

Tanunchai, Benjawan; Schroeter, Simon Andreas; Ji, Li; Wahdan, Sara Fareed Mohamed; Hossen, Shakhawat; Lehnert, Ann-Sophie; Grünberg, Hagen; Gleixner, Gerd; Buscot, François; Schulze, Ernst Detlef; Noll, Matthias; Purahong, Witoon

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2022.907531

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 43 publications

(72 reference statements)

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“…in the much drier, submontane forests of Brazil (1200 and 1700 mm; et al, 2021). These results indicate that epiphylls do not only depend on the presence of a superhost, such as Danaea nodosa at our study site, but also on the right environmental conditions such as high rainfall and air humidity (Tanunchai et al, 2022). Leaf longevity alone is not the only important factor for epiphyll colonization either, because three of our studied fern species with even longer leaf life spans (Lomariopsis recurvata, Mickelia bernoullii and Mickelia pergamentacea) were colonized by fewer foliicolous lichens (2-9 species after 26 months).…”

Section: Richness and Composition Of Three Groups Of Epiphylls On Fernsmentioning

confidence: 58%

Impact of longevity and wettability of fern leaves on epiphyll colonization in a Mexican lowland rainforest

Cerón-Carpio

García

Guerrero‐Analco

et al. 2023

J Vegetation Science

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Questions Leaf traits play an important role in the epiphyll colonization of leaves. Although ferns are common in forest understories, they have been widely ignored as possible host plants. We asked: How does epiphyll colonization (cover, richness, and composition) differ among fern species depending on their leaf longevity and surface wettability? Location Tropical Biological Station of “Los Tuxtlas”, Veracruz (Mexico). Methods Epiphyll cover was monitored on leaves of six individuals per species after 2, 5, 12, 16.5, and 26 months. Leaf longevity was calculated from leaf turnover rates over 24 months. Leaf wettability was determined through the contact angle technique. Results All studied fern species had hydrophilic leaf surfaces. Fern species with shorter leaf longevity (14.4–17.8 months) were colonized faster by epiphylls than species with longer leaf life spans (33.9–38.8 months). The area of the oldest leaves was covered to 1.2%–26.1% by foliicolous lichens and to 0.3%–2.2% by green algae. Foliicolous lichens were more species‐rich on Danaea nodosa (27 spp.) than on the other fern species (1–9 lichen spp.). Foliose liverworts thrived on the only riparian fern (3.57%). Only 0.04%–1.1% of the area of plastic substrates was colonized by epiphylls. Conclusions The hydrophilic leaf surfaces of ferns facilitated the colonization of epiphylls, especially of foliicolous lichens. The speed of epiphyll colonization was faster in ferns with shorter leaf longevity but increased in all species with leaf age. However, the relatively low epiphyll cover on fern leaves and artificial substrates in our study might be related to unfavorable microclimatic parameters.

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Section: Richness and Composition Of Three Groups Of Epiphylls On Fernsmentioning

confidence: 58%

Impact of longevity and wettability of fern leaves on epiphyll colonization in a Mexican lowland rainforest

Cerón-Carpio

García

Guerrero‐Analco

et al. 2023

J Vegetation Science

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“…The lichen symbiosis, a stable association of mainly fungal and photobiont partners as well as an associated microbiome, lends itself to the study of environmentally-driven gene content, because many species have remarkable environmental tolerances and maintain populations in different climate zones ( Kappen, 2000 ; Werth and Sork, 2014 ; Singh et al, 2017 ; Grimm et al, 2021 ; Jung et al, 2021 ; Tanunchai et al, 2022 ). Previous studies showed that environmental differentiation in lichens can be found at the level of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), which often significantly correlate with differences in geography and ecology and may thus be involved in environmental specialization ( Peksa and Skaloud, 2011 ; Castillo et al, 2012 ; Hodkinson et al, 2012 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gene abundance linked to climate zone: Parallel evolution of gene content along elevation gradients in lichenized fungi

et al. 2023

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IntroductionIntraspecific genomic variability affects a species’ adaptive potential toward climatic conditions. Variation in gene content across populations and environments may point at genomic adaptations to specific environments. The lichen symbiosis, a stable association of fungal and photobiont partners, offers an excellent system to study environmentally driven gene content variation. Many of these species have remarkable environmental tolerances, and often form populations across different climate zones. Here, we combine comparative and population genomics to assess the presence and absence of genes in high and low elevation genomes of two lichenized fungi of the genus Umbilicaria.MethodsThe two species have non-overlapping ranges, but occupy similar climatic niches in North America (U. phaea) and Europe (U. pustulata): high elevation populations are located in the cold temperate zone and low elevation populations in the Mediterranean zone. We assessed gene content variation along replicated elevation gradients in each of the two species, based on a total of 2050 individuals across 26 populations. Specifically, we assessed shared orthologs across species within the same climate zone, and tracked, which genes increase or decrease in abundance within populations along elevation.ResultsIn total, we found 16 orthogroups with shared orthologous genes in genomes at low elevation and 13 at high elevation. Coverage analysis revealed one ortholog that is exclusive to genomes at low elevation. Conserved domain search revealed domains common to the protein kinase superfamily. We traced the discovered ortholog in populations along five replicated elevation gradients on both continents and found that the number of this protein kinase gene linearly declined in abundance with increasing elevation, and was absent in the highest populations.DiscussionWe consider the parallel loss of an ortholog in two species and in two geographic settings a rare find, and a step forward in understanding the genomic underpinnings of climatic tolerances in lichenized fungi. In addition, the tracking of gene content variation provides a widely applicable framework for retrieving biogeographical determinants of gene presence/absence patterns. Our work provides insights into gene content variation of lichenized fungi in relation to climatic gradients, suggesting a new research direction with implications for understanding evolutionary trajectories of complex symbioses in relation to climatic change.

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“…The lichen symbiosis, a stable association of mainly fungal and photobiont partners as well as an associated microbiome, lends itself to the study of environmentally driven gene content, because many species have remarkable environmental tolerances and maintain populations in different climate zones (Grimm et al, 2021;Jung et al, 2021;Kappen, 2000;Medeiros et al, 2021;Sierra et al, 2020;Singh et al, 2017;Tanunchai et al, 2022;Werth & Sork, 2014). Population genomic analyses based on single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) suggest the presence of genome-wide differentiation between populations in different climate zones (Dal Grande et al, 2017;Rolshausen et al, 2022).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Protein kinase gene declines linearly with elevation: a shared genomic feature across species and continents in lichenized fungi suggests role in climate adaptation

Merges

Grande

Valim

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Intraspecific genomic variability affects a species' adaptive potential towards climatic conditions. Variation in gene content across populations and environments may point at genomic adaptations to specific environments. The lichen symbiosis, a stable association of fungal and photobiont partners, offers an excellent system to study environmentally driven gene content variation. Many species have remarkable environmental tolerances, and often form populations in different climate zones. Here we combine comparative and population genomics to assess the presence and absence of genes in high elevation and low elevation genomes of two lichenized fungi of the genus Umbilicaria. The two species have non-overlapping ranges, but occupy similar climatic niches in North America (U. phaea) and Europe (U. pustulata): high elevation populations are located in the cold temperate zone and low elevation populations in the Mediterranean zone. We assessed gene content variation along replicated elevation gradients in each of the two species, based on a total of 2050 individuals across 26 populations. Specifically, we assessed shared orthologs across species within the same climate zone, and tracked which genes increase or decrease in abundance within populations along elevation. In total, we found 16 orthogroups with shared orthologous genes in genomes at low elevation and 13 at high elevation. Coverage analysis revealed one ortholog that is exclusive to genomes at low elevation. Conserved domain search revealed domains common to the protein kinases (PKs) superfamily. We traced the discovered ortholog in populations along five replicated elevation gradients on both continents. The protein kinase gene linearly declined in abundance with increasing elevation, and was absent in the highest populations. We consider the parallel loss of an ortholog in two species and in two geographic settings a rare find, and a step forward in understanding the genomic underpinnings of climatic tolerances in lichenized fungi. In addition, the tracking of gene content variation provides a widely applicable framework for retrieving biogeographical determinants of gene presence/absence patterns. Our work provides insights into gene content variation of lichenized fungi in relation to climatic gradients, suggesting a new research direction with implications for understanding evolutionary trajectories of complex symbioses in relation to climatic change.

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More than you can see: Unraveling the ecology and biodiversity of lichenized fungi associated with leaves and needles of 12 temperate tree species using high-throughput sequencing

Abstract: More than you can see: Unraveling the ecology and biodiversity of lichenized fungi associated with leaves and needles of temperate tree species using high-throughput sequencing.

Cited by 3 publications

References 43 publications

Impact of longevity and wettability of fern leaves on epiphyll colonization in a Mexican lowland rainforest

Impact of longevity and wettability of fern leaves on epiphyll colonization in a Mexican lowland rainforest

Gene abundance linked to climate zone: Parallel evolution of gene content along elevation gradients in lichenized fungi

Protein kinase gene declines linearly with elevation: a shared genomic feature across species and continents in lichenized fungi suggests role in climate adaptation

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