Extremely thin but very robust: Surprising cryptogam trait combinations at the end of the leaf economics spectrum.

Leaf economics spectrum (LES) describes the fundamental trade-offs between leaf structural, chemical, and physiological investments. Generally, structurally robust thick leaves with high leaf dry mass per unit area (LMA) exhibit lower photosynthetic capacity per dry mass ( ). Paradoxically, "soft and thin-leaved" mosses and spikemosses have very low , but due to minute-size foliage elements, their LMA and its components, leaf thickness (LT) and density (LD), have not been systematically estimated.

Improved monitoring of cryptogam gas-exchange and volatile emissions during desiccation-rehydration cycles with a within-chamber hydration method.

Desiccation-rehydration studies in cryptogams constitute an important tool to understand the relation of key physiological traits with species stress tolerance and environmental adaptability. Real-time monitoring of responses has been limited by the design of commercial or custom measuring cuvettes and difficulties in experimental manipulation. We developed a within-chamber rehydration method that allows to rewater the samples rapidly, without the need to open the chamber and take out the sample for manual rehydration by the investigator.

Desiccation-rehydration measurements in bryophytes: current status and future insights.

Desiccation-rehydration experiments have been employed over the years to evaluate desiccation tolerance of bryophytes (Bryophyta, Marchantiophyta, and Anthocerotophyta). Researchers have applied a spectrum of protocols to induce desiccation and subsequent rehydration, and a wide variety of techniques have been used to study desiccation-dependent changes in bryophyte molecular, cellular, physiological, and structural traits, resulting in a multifaceted assortment of information that is challenging to synthesize. We analysed 337 desiccation-rehydration studies, providing information for 351 species, to identify the most frequent methods used, analyse the advances in desiccation studies over the years, and characterize the taxonomic representation of the species assessed.

Analyzing the causes of method-to-method variability among Rubisco kinetic traits: from the first to the current measurements.

Due to the importance of Rubisco in the biosphere, its kinetic parameters have been measured by different methodologies in a large number of studies over the last 60 years. These parameters are essential to characterize the natural diversity in the catalytic properties of the enzyme and they are also required for photosynthesis and cross-scale crop modeling. The present compilation of Rubisco kinetic parameters in model species revealed a wide intraspecific laboratory-to-laboratory variability, which was partially solved by making corrections to account for differences in the assay buffer composition and in the acidity constant of dissolved CO2, as well as for differences in the CO2 and O2 solubilities.

Low genetic differentiation between apotheciate Usnea florida and sorediate Usnea subfloridana (Parmeliaceae, Ascomycota) based on microsatellite data.

Accurate species delimitation has a pivotal role in conservation biology, and it is especially important for threatened species where decisions have political and economic consequences. Finding and applying appropriate character sets and analytical tools to resolve interspecific relationships remains challenging in lichenized fungi. The main aim of our study was to re-assess the species boundaries between Usnea subfloridana and Usnea florida, which have been phylogenetically indistinguishable until now, but are different in reproductive mode and ecological preferences, using fungal-specific simple sequence repeats (SSR), i.

Contrasting co-occurrence patterns of photobiont and cystobasidiomycete yeast associated with common epiphytic lichen species.

The popular dual definition of lichen symbiosis is under question with recent findings of additional microbial partners living within the lichen body. Here we compare the distribution and co-occurrence patterns of lichen photobiont and recently described secondary fungus (Cyphobasidiales yeast) to evaluate their dependency on lichen host fungus (mycobiont). We sequenced the nuclear internal transcribed spacer (ITS) strands for mycobiont, photobiont, and yeast from six widespread northern hemisphere epiphytic lichen species collected from 25 sites in Switzerland and Estonia.

Lichen chemistry is concordant with multilocus gene genealogy in the genus Cetrelia (Parmeliaceae, Ascomycota).

The lichen genus Cetrelia represents a taxonomically interesting case where morphologically almost uniform populations differ considerably from each other chemically. Similar variation is not uncommon among lichenized fungi, but it is disputable whether such populations should be considered entities at the species level. Species boundaries in Cetrelia are traditionally delimited either as solely based on morphology or as combinations of morpho- and chemotypes.

Anatomical constraints to nonstomatal diffusion conductance and photosynthesis in lycophytes and bryophytes.

Photosynthesis in bryophytes and lycophytes has received less attention than terrestrial plant groups. In particular, few studies have addressed the nonstomatal diffusion conductance to CO g of these plant groups. Their lower photosynthetic rate per leaf mass area at any given nitrogen concentration compared with vascular plants suggested a stronger limitation by CO diffusion.

Barcoding lichen-forming fungi using 454 pyrosequencing is challenged by artifactual and biological sequence variation.

Although lichens (lichen-forming fungi) play an important role in the ecological integrity of many vulnerable landscapes, only a minority of lichen-forming fungi have been barcoded out of the currently accepted ∼18 000 species. Regular Sanger sequencing can be problematic when analyzing lichens since saprophytic, endophytic, and parasitic fungi live intimately admixed, resulting in low-quality sequencing reads. Here, high-throughput, long-read 454 pyrosequencing in a GS FLX+ System was tested to barcode the fungal partner of 100 epiphytic lichen species from Switzerland using fungal-specific primers when amplifying the full internal transcribed spacer region (ITS).

Evolution of complex symbiotic relationships in a morphologically derived family of lichen-forming fungi.

We studied the evolutionary history of the Parmeliaceae (Lecanoromycetes, Ascomycota), one of the largest families of lichen-forming fungi with complex and variable morphologies, also including several lichenicolous fungi. We assembled a six-locus data set including nuclear, mitochondrial and low-copy protein-coding genes from 293 operational taxonomic units (OTUs). The lichenicolous lifestyle originated independently three times in lichenized ancestors within Parmeliaceae, and a new generic name is introduced for one of these fungi.

Species delimitation in the lichenized fungal genus Vulpicida (Parmeliaceae, Ascomycota) using gene concatenation and coalescent-based species tree approaches.

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Premise Of The Study: Species boundaries in many organism groups are still in a state of flux, and for empirical species delimitation, finding appropriate character sets and analytical tools are among the greatest challenges. In the lichenized fungal genus Vulpicida, six morphologically circumscribed species have been distinguished, but phenotypic characters partly overlap for three of these and intermediate forms occur. We used a combination of phylogenetic strategies to delimit the species in this genus.