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Species Diversity, Ecology and Evolutionary History of Lichenized Fungi

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A special issue of Journal of Fungi (ISSN 2309-608X). This special issue belongs to the section "Fungal Evolution, Biodiversity and Systematics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 October 2023) | Viewed by 16008

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Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Silke Werth

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Guest Editor

Systematics, Biodiversity and Evolution of Plants, Ludwig-Maximilians Universität München, Menzingerstraße 67, 80638 Munich, Germany
Interests: lichenized fungi; population genetics; ecological genomics

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Lichens are a symbiosis between lichenized fungi, photosynthetic partners, and associated microorganisms. In this Special Issue of the Journal of Fungi, entitled Species Diversity, Ecology and Evolutionary History of Lichenized Fungi, we invite contributions that address fundamental questions to move the field forward with respect to the evolutionary history and physiology of lichenized fungi, their conservation biology, and the drivers of species diversity in their communities.

We are specifically looking for studies covering the following topics:

Community ecology of lichenized fungi, associated microorganisms, drivers of species diversity, and lichen responses to environmental change;
Conservation biology, conservation genetics, and dispersal of lichenized fungi;
Evolutionary history, phylogeography, and population variation in lichenized fungi and associated microorganisms;
Physiology of lichenized fungi and associated microorganisms.

Prof. Dr. Silke Werth
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Journal of Fungi is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

species diversity
stress response

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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39 pages, 17616 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Lichen Genus Sticta (Lobariaceae, Peltigerales) in East African Montane Ecosystems

by Ulla Kaasalainen, Paul M. Kirika, Neduvoto P. Mollel, Andreas Hemp and Jouko Rikkinen

J. Fungi 2023, 9(2), 246; https://doi.org/10.3390/jof9020246 - 12 Feb 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1785

Abstract

The lichen flora of Africa is still poorly known. In many parts of the tropics, recent studies utilizing DNA methods have revealed extraordinary diversity among various groups of lichenized fungi, including the genus Sticta. In this study, East African Sticta species and their ecology are reviewed using the genetic barcoding marker nuITS and morphological characters. The studied regions represent montane areas in Kenya and Tanzania, including the Taita Hills and Mt. Kilimanjaro, which belong to the Eastern Afromontane biodiversity hotspot. Altogether 14 Sticta species are confirmed from the study region, including the previously reported S. fuliginosa, S. sublimbata, S. tomentosa, and S. umbilicariiformis. Sticta andina, S. ciliata, S. duplolimbata, S. fuliginoides, and S. marginalis are reported as new to Kenya and/or Tanzania. Sticta afromontana, S. aspratilis, S. cellulosa, S. cyanocaperata, and S. munda, are described as new to science. The abundance of new diversity detected and the number of taxa represented by only few specimens show that more comprehensive sampling of the region may be needed to reveal the true diversity of Sticta in East Africa. More generally, our results highlight the need for further taxonomic studies of lichenized fungi in the region. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Species Diversity, Ecology and Evolutionary History of Lichenized Fungi)

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20 pages, 1405 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Reference-Based RADseq Unravels the Evolutionary History of Polar Species in ‘the Crux Lichenologorum’ Genus Usnea (Parmeliaceae, Ascomycota)

by Ana Otero, Alejandrina Barcenas-Peña, H. Thorsten Lumbsch and Felix Grewe

J. Fungi 2023, 9(1), 99; https://doi.org/10.3390/jof9010099 - 11 Jan 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2860

Abstract

Nearly 90% of fungal diversity, one of the most speciose branches in the tree of life, remains undescribed. Lichenized fungi as symbiotic associations are still a challenge for species delimitation, and current species diversity is vastly underestimated. The ongoing democratization of Next-Generation Sequencing is turning the tables. Particularly, reference-based RADseq allows for metagenomic filtering of the symbiont sequence and yields robust phylogenomic trees of closely related species. We implemented reference-based RADseq to disentangle the evolution of neuropogonoid lichens, which inhabit harsh environments and belong to Usnea (Parmeliaceae, Ascomycota), one of the most taxonomically intriguing genera within lichenized fungi. Full taxon coverage of neuropogonoid lichens was sampled for the first time, coupled with phenotype characterizations. More than 20,000 loci of 126 specimens were analyzed through concatenated and coalescent-based methods, including time calibrations. Our analysis addressed the major taxonomic discussions over recent decades. Subsequently, two species are newly described, namely U. aymondiana and U. fibriloides, and three species names are resurrected. The late Miocene and Pliocene-Pleistocene boundary is inferred as the timeframe for neuropogonoid lichen diversification. Ultimately, this study helped fill the gap of fungal diversity by setting a solid backbone phylogeny which raises new questions about which factors may trigger complex evolutionary scenarios. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Species Diversity, Ecology and Evolutionary History of Lichenized Fungi)

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21 pages, 2339 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Antibiotic-Induced Treatments Reveal Stress-Responsive Gene Expression in the Endangered Lichen Lobaria pulmonaria

by Tania Chavarria-Pizarro, Philipp Resl, Theresa Kuhl-Nagel, Aleksandar Janjic, Fernando Fernandez Mendoza and Silke Werth

J. Fungi 2022, 8(6), 625; https://doi.org/10.3390/jof8060625 - 12 Jun 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2311

Abstract

Antibiotics are primarily found in the environment due to human activity, which has been reported to influence the structure of biotic communities and the ecological functions of soil and water ecosystems. Nonetheless, their effects in other terrestrial ecosystems have not been well studied. As a result of oxidative stress in organisms exposed to high levels of antibiotics, genotoxicity can lead to DNA damage and, potentially, cell death. In addition, in symbiotic organisms, removal of the associated microbiome by antibiotic treatment has been observed to have a big impact on the host, e.g., corals. The lung lichen Lobaria pulmonaria has more than 800 associated bacterial species, a microbiome which has been hypothesized to increase the lichen’s fitness. We artificially exposed samples of L. pulmonaria to antibiotics and a stepwise temperature increase to determine the relative effects of antibiotic treatments vs. temperature on the mycobiont and photobiont gene expression and the viability and on the community structure of the lichen-associated bacteria. We found that the mycobiont and photobiont highly reacted to different antibiotics, independently of temperature exposure. We did not find major differences in bacterial community composition or alpha diversity between antibiotic treatments and controls. For these reasons, the upregulation of stress-related genes in antibiotic-treated samples could be caused by genotoxicity in L. pulmonaria and its photobiont caused by exposure to antibiotics, and the observed stress responses are reactions of the symbiotic partners to reduce damage to their cells. Our study is of great interest for the community of researchers studying symbiotic organisms as it represents one of the first steps to understanding gene expression in an endangered lichen in response to exposure to toxic environments, along with dynamics in its associated bacterial communities. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Species Diversity, Ecology and Evolutionary History of Lichenized Fungi)

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18 pages, 2483 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Providing Scale to a Known Taxonomic Unknown—At Least a 70-Fold Increase in Species Diversity in a Cosmopolitan Nominal Taxon of Lichen-Forming Fungi

by Yanyun Zhang, Jeffrey Clancy, Jacob Jensen, Richard Troy McMullin, Lisong Wang and Steven D. Leavitt

J. Fungi 2022, 8(5), 490; https://doi.org/10.3390/jof8050490 - 08 May 2022

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 5165

Abstract

Robust species delimitations provide a foundation for investigating speciation, phylogeography, and conservation. Here we attempted to elucidate species boundaries in the cosmopolitan lichen-forming fungal taxon Lecanora polytropa. This nominal taxon is morphologically variable, with distinct populations occurring on all seven continents. To delimit candidate species, we compiled ITS sequence data from populations worldwide. For a subset of the samples, we also generated alignments for 1209 single-copy nuclear genes and an alignment spanning most of the mitochondrial genome to assess concordance among the ITS, nuclear, and mitochondrial inferences. Species partitions were empirically delimited from the ITS alignment using ASAP and bPTP. We also inferred a phylogeny for the L. polytropa clade using a four-marker dataset. ASAP species delimitations revealed up to 103 species in the L. polytropa clade, with 75 corresponding to the nominal taxon L. polytropa. Inferences from phylogenomic alignments generally supported that these represent evolutionarily independent lineages or species. Less than 10% of the candidate species were comprised of specimens from multiple continents. High levels of candidate species were recovered at local scales but generally with limited overlap across regions. Lecanora polytropa likely ranks as one of the largest species complexes of lichen-forming fungi known to date. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Species Diversity, Ecology and Evolutionary History of Lichenized Fungi)

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Review

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30 pages, 2860 KiB

Open AccessReview

Regionally Varying Habitat Relationships in Lichens: The Concept and Evidence with an Emphasis on North-Temperate Ecosystems

by Asko Lõhmus, Jurga Motiejūnaitė and Piret Lõhmus

J. Fungi 2023, 9(3), 341; https://doi.org/10.3390/jof9030341 - 10 Mar 2023

Viewed by 2756

Abstract

Habitat ecology of lichens (lichen-forming fungi) involves diverse adaptations to stressful environments where lichens use specific habitat conditions. Field observations confirm that such habitat ‘preferences’ can vary significantly across species’ distribution ranges, sometimes revealing abrupt changes over short distances. We critically review and generalize such empirical evidence as broad ecological patterns, link these with the likely physiological mechanisms and evolutionary processes involved, and outline the implications for lichen conservation. Non-replicated correlative studies remain only suggestive because the data are frequently compromised by sampling bias and pervasive random errors; further noise is related to unrecognized cryptic species. Replicated evidence exists for three macroecological patterns: (a) regional limiting factors excluding a species from a part of its microhabitat range in suboptimal areas; (b) microhabitat shifts to buffer regionally adverse macroclimates; (c) substrate suitability changed by the chemical environment, notably air pollution. All these appear to be primarily buffering physiological challenges of the adverse conditions at the macrohabitat scale or, in favorable environments, coping with competition or predation. The roles of plasticity, adaptation, dispersal, and population-level stochasticity remain to be studied. Although lichens can inhabit various novel microhabitats, there is no evidence for a related adaptive change. A precautionary approach to lichen conservation is to maintain long-term structural heterogeneity in lichen habitats, and consider lichen ecotypes as potential evolutionarily significant units and a bet-hedging strategy for addressing the climate change-related challenges to biodiversity. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Species Diversity, Ecology and Evolutionary History of Lichenized Fungi)

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