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Citation for Study 17331

Citation title: "Fungal specificity and selectivity for algae play a major role in determining lichen partnerships across diverse ecogeographic regions in the lichen-forming family Parmeliaceae (Ascomycota)".

Study name: "Fungal specificity and selectivity for algae play a major role in determining lichen partnerships across diverse ecogeographic regions in the lichen-forming family Parmeliaceae (Ascomycota)".

This study is part of submission 17331 (Status: Published).

Citation

Leavitt S., Kraichak E., Nelsen M., Altermann S., Divakar P.K., Alors D., Esslinger T.L., Crespo A., & Lumbsch H.T. 2015. Fungal specificity and selectivity for algae play a major role in determining lichen partnerships across diverse ecogeographic regions in the lichen-forming family Parmeliaceae (Ascomycota). Molecular Ecology, .

Authors

• Leavitt S. (submitter)
• Kraichak E.
• Nelsen M.
• Altermann S.
• Divakar P.K. +34913942282
• Alors D.
• Esslinger T.L.
• Crespo A.
• Lumbsch H.T.

Abstract

Microbial symbionts are instrumental to the ecological and long-term evolutionary success of their hosts, and the central role of symbiotic interactions is increasingly recognized across the vast majority of life. Lichens provide an iconic model for investigating patterns in species interactions; however, relationships among lichen symbionts are often masked by uncertain species boundaries or inability to reliably identify symbionts. The species-rich lichen-forming fungal family Parmeliaceae provides a valuable system for assessing patterns of interactions of algal symbionts, and our study addresses patterns of lichen symbiont interactions at the largest geographical and taxonomical scales ever attempted. We analyzed a total of 2356 algal internal transcribed spacer region (ITS) sequences collected from lichens representing ten mycobiont genera in Parmeliaceae, two genera in Lecanoraceae, and 26 cultured Trebouxia strains. Algal sequences were grouped into operational taxonomic units (OTUs), and we explored patterns of symbiont interactions in these lichens based on ecogeographic distributions and mycobiont taxonomy. We found high levels of undescribed diversity in Trebouxia, broad distributions across distinct ecoregions for many photobiont OTUs, and varying levels of mycobiont selectivity and specificity towards the photobiont. Based on these results, we conclude that fungal specificity and selectivity for algal partners play a major role in determining lichen partnerships, potentially superseding ecology, at least at the ecogeographical scale investigated here. In order to facilitate effective communication and consistency across future studies, we propose a provisional naming system for Trebouxia photobionts and provide representative sequences for each OTU circumscribed in this study.

Keywords

co-evolution, ecology, ecoregion, mycobiont, photobiont, Trebouxia

External links

About this resource

• Canonical resource URI: http://purl.org/phylo/treebase/phylows/study/TB2:S17331
• Other versions: Nexus NeXML
• Show BibTeX reference

  		@ARTICLE{TreeBASE2Ref24374,
  	 author = {Steve  Leavitt and Ekaphan  Kraichak and Matthew P.  Nelsen and Susanne   Altermann and Pradeep Kumar Divakar and David  Alors and Theodore L Esslinger and Ana  Crespo and H. Thorsten Lumbsch},
  	 title = {Fungal specificity and selectivity for algae play a major role in determining lichen partnerships across diverse ecogeographic regions in the lichen-forming family Parmeliaceae (Ascomycota)},
  	 year = {2015},
  	 keywords = {co-evolution, ecology, ecoregion, mycobiont, photobiont, Trebouxia},
  	 doi = {},
  	 url = {http://},
  	 pmid = {},
  	 journal = {Molecular Ecology},
  	 volume = {},
  	 number = {},
  	 pages = {},
  	 abstract = {Microbial symbionts are instrumental to the ecological and long-term evolutionary success of their hosts, and the central role of symbiotic interactions is increasingly recognized across the vast majority of life. Lichens provide an iconic model for investigating patterns in species interactions; however, relationships among lichen symbionts are often masked by uncertain species boundaries or inability to reliably identify symbionts. The species-rich lichen-forming fungal family Parmeliaceae provides a valuable system for assessing patterns of interactions of algal symbionts, and our study addresses patterns of lichen symbiont interactions at the largest geographical and taxonomical scales ever attempted. We analyzed a total of 2356 algal internal transcribed spacer region (ITS) sequences collected from lichens representing ten mycobiont genera in Parmeliaceae, two genera in Lecanoraceae, and 26 cultured Trebouxia strains. Algal sequences were grouped into operational taxonomic units (OTUs), and we explored patterns of symbiont interactions in these lichens based on ecogeographic distributions and mycobiont taxonomy. We found high levels of undescribed diversity in Trebouxia, broad distributions across distinct ecoregions for many photobiont OTUs, and varying levels of mycobiont selectivity and specificity towards the photobiont. Based on these results, we conclude that fungal specificity and selectivity for algal partners play a major role in determining lichen partnerships, potentially superseding ecology, at least at the ecogeographical scale investigated here. In order to facilitate effective communication and consistency across future studies, we propose a provisional naming system for Trebouxia photobionts and provide representative sequences for each OTU circumscribed in this study.}
  }
  		

• Show RIS reference

  		TY  - JOUR
  ID  - 24374
  AU  - Leavitt,Steve 
  AU  - Kraichak,Ekaphan 
  AU  - Nelsen,Matthew P. 
  AU  - Altermann,Susanne  
  AU  - Divakar,Pradeep Kumar
  AU  - Alors,David 
  AU  - Esslinger,Theodore L
  AU  - Crespo,Ana 
  AU  - Lumbsch,H. Thorsten
  T1  - Fungal specificity and selectivity for algae play a major role in determining lichen partnerships across diverse ecogeographic regions in the lichen-forming family Parmeliaceae (Ascomycota)
  PY  - 2015
  KW  - co-evolution
  KW  - ecology
  KW  - ecoregion
  KW  - mycobiont
  KW  - photobiont
  KW  - Trebouxia
  UR  - http://dx.doi.org/
  N2  - Microbial symbionts are instrumental to the ecological and long-term evolutionary success of their hosts, and the central role of symbiotic interactions is increasingly recognized across the vast majority of life. Lichens provide an iconic model for investigating patterns in species interactions; however, relationships among lichen symbionts are often masked by uncertain species boundaries or inability to reliably identify symbionts. The species-rich lichen-forming fungal family Parmeliaceae provides a valuable system for assessing patterns of interactions of algal symbionts, and our study addresses patterns of lichen symbiont interactions at the largest geographical and taxonomical scales ever attempted. We analyzed a total of 2356 algal internal transcribed spacer region (ITS) sequences collected from lichens representing ten mycobiont genera in Parmeliaceae, two genera in Lecanoraceae, and 26 cultured Trebouxia strains. Algal sequences were grouped into operational taxonomic units (OTUs), and we explored patterns of symbiont interactions in these lichens based on ecogeographic distributions and mycobiont taxonomy. We found high levels of undescribed diversity in Trebouxia, broad distributions across distinct ecoregions for many photobiont OTUs, and varying levels of mycobiont selectivity and specificity towards the photobiont. Based on these results, we conclude that fungal specificity and selectivity for algal partners play a major role in determining lichen partnerships, potentially superseding ecology, at least at the ecogeographical scale investigated here. In order to facilitate effective communication and consistency across future studies, we propose a provisional naming system for Trebouxia photobionts and provide representative sequences for each OTU circumscribed in this study.
  L3  - 
  JF  - Molecular Ecology
  VL  - 
  IS  - 
  ER  -