Publications by authors named "Lumbsch H"

Background: The ubiquity of sex across eukaryotes, given its high costs, strongly suggests it is evolutionarily advantageous. Asexual lineages can avoid, for example, the risks and energetic costs of recombination, but suffer short-term reductions in adaptive potential and long-term damage to genome integrity. Despite these costs, lichenized fungi have frequently evolved asexual reproduction, likely because it allows the retention of symbiotic algae across generations.

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The genus includes several subcrustose, squamulose, small foliose, and small subfruticose species, primarily in the Southern Hemisphere. Here, we report on the first small foliose species lacking usnic acid in the genus occurring in the Holarctic. The species has been previously known as Nyl.

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Lichens are an important part of forest ecosystems, contributing to forest biodiversity, the formation of micro-niches and nutrient cycling. Assessing the diversity of lichenised fungi in complex ecosystems, such as forests, requires time and substantial skills in collecting and identifying lichens. The completeness of inventories thus largely depends on the expertise of the collector, time available for the survey and size of the studied area.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study introduces new species of fungi discovered in various environments, including leaves, soil, and dead organic matter across different countries.
  • These fungi were identified based on their morphological features and DNA barcodes, confirming their uniqueness.
  • The findings are documented in the publication "Fungal Planet description sheets," highlighting the diversity and ecological roles of the newly described fungi.
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  • Cryptic species in lichen-forming fungi are prevalent, particularly within the Parmeliaceae family.
  • Researchers focused on asexually reproducing species to clarify their classification and found notable genetic diversity among them.
  • By analyzing genome-wide SNP data, they identified four distinct clades as separate species, including two new species, contributing to a better understanding of their evolutionary relationships.
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was described in 1904 but its taxonomic status has been disputed, being reduced to a variety of or synonymized with . The taxonomic confusion of this taxon has remained unresolved. Hence, we revisited the taxonomic status of the taxon using phylogenetic and morphometric approaches.

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Tropical regions harbor a substantial diversity of lichenized fungi, but face numerous threats to their persistence, often even before previously unknown species have been described and their evolutionary relationships have been elucidated. (Ramalinaceae) is a lichen-forming genus of fungi that produces crustose thalli, and includes a number of lineages occupying tropical rain forests; however, taxonomic and phylogenetic work on this clade is limited. Here we leverage both morphological and sequence data to describe a new species from the tropics, .

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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.

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Lichens are well known as pioneer organisms or stress-tolerant extremophiles, potentially playing a core role in the early formation of terrestrial ecosystems. Epiphytic macrolichens are known to contribute to the water- and nutrient cycles in forest ecosystem. But due to the scarcity of fossil record, the evolutionary history of epiphytic macrolichens is poorly documented.

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We used molecular data to address species delimitation in a species complex of the parmelioid genus and compare the pharmacological properties of the two clades identified. We used HPLC_DAD_MS chromatography to identify and quantify the secondary substances and used a concatenated data set of three ribosomal markers to infer phylogenetic relationships. Some historical herbarium specimens were also examined.

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Lichen associations are overwhelmingly supported by carbon produced by photosynthetic algal symbionts. These algae have diversified to occupy nearly all climates and continents; however, we have a limited understanding of how their climatic niches have evolved through time. Here we extend previous work and ask whether phylogenetic signal in, and the evolution of, climatic niche, varies across climatic variables, phylogenetic scales, and among algal lineages in the most common genus of lichen-forming algae.

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Article Synopsis
  • The text talks about how some organisms, like fungi and cyanobacteria, work together in a friendship called mutualism, which makes them evolve slower than if they were fighting each other (like the Red Queen dynamic).
  • Researchers studied about 2000 genes in different types of fungi, including those that form lichen (a plant-like mix of fungus and algae) and those that don’t.
  • They found that lichen-forming fungi evolve slower because they have longer life cycles, and this discovery helps us understand how organisms can influence each other's evolution when they work together.
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Species delimitation among closely related species is challenging because traditional phenotype-based approaches, for example, using morphology, ecological, or chemical characteristics, may not coincide with natural groupings. With the advent of high-throughput sequencing, it has become increasingly cost-effective to acquire genome-scale data which can resolve previously ambiguous species boundaries. As the availability of genome-scale data has increased, numerous species delimitation analyses, such as BPP and SNAPP+Bayes factor delimitation (BFD*), have been developed to delimit species boundaries.

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  • Lichens are special because they’re made of both fungi and algae working together, and the algae part, called Trebouxia, is super important but not fully understood!
  • Researchers studied data from 20 years to see how Trebouxia changed in different climates and found that it mostly likes moderate weather and then started growing in both wet and dry places!
  • They discovered that Trebouxia adapted to various habitats over time, showing that it can thrive in many environments around the world!
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  • The study focuses on Parmeliaceae, the largest family of lichen-forming fungi, analyzing 250 out of 350 genes to understand its phylogeny across various clades.
  • By employing various analytical methods, the researchers found strong support for the monophyly of two subfamilies and seven major clades within Parmelioideae, as well as notable backbone relationships.
  • The genus Parmotrema was identified as polyphyletic, leading to the proposal of reclassifying some species into a new genus called Crespoa, highlighting the effectiveness of reduced genome-scale data in phylogenetic research.
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Lichen-forming fungi are known to produce a large number of secondary metabolites. Some metabolites are deposited in the cortical layer of the lichen thallus where they exert important ecological functions, such as UV filtering. The fact that closely related lineages of lichen-forming fungi can differ in cortical chemistry suggests that natural product biosynthesis in lichens can evolve independent from phylogenetic constraints.

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Draft genomes of the fungal species , and are presented. is an important lichen forming fungus and is an ambrosia beetle symbiont. and are agriculturally relevant plant pathogens that cause leaf-spots in brassicaceous vegetables and cucurbits respectively.

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Article Synopsis
  • Symbioses, like lichens, are important in nature but we don’t fully understand how they started or why they change over time.
  • Researchers studied over 3,300 types of lichen-forming fungi to see how their relationships with other organisms evolved.
  • They found that lichenization (the process of becoming a lichen) happened differently than thought, with some types of lichens evolving from non-lichenized ancestors, which changes how we understand symbiosis overall.
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Dothideomycetes is the most diverse fungal class in Ascomycota and includes species with a wide range of lifestyles. Previous multilocus studies have investigated the taxonomic and evolutionary relationships of these taxa but often failed to resolve early diverging nodes and frequently generated inconsistent placements of some clades. Here, we use a phylogenomic approach to resolve relationships in Dothideomycetes, focusing on two genera of melanized, extremotolerant rock-inhabiting fungi, and , that have been suggested to be early diverging lineages.

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  • Sticta, a fungal genus, forms symbiotic relationships primarily with green algae or cyanobacteria, with some species having associations with both types simultaneously.
  • The study explored the diversity of green algal partners in Sticta across various global locations, revealing multiple genera of algae, with Heveochlorella being the most prevalent.
  • Geographic factors significantly influence fungal-algal partnerships in Sticta, and while fungal and algal phylogenies showed some alignment, the study found no evidence for cospeciation, indicating that other evolutionary events such as host-switching played a role in these associations.
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  • Lichens serve as effective models for studying symbiotic relationships between fungi (mycobionts) and algae (photobionts), with a focus on availability and specificity.
  • The green algal genus Trebouxia, which is a significant photobiont, shows a disparity between the number of recognized species (29) and the actual diversity, with many lineages still undescribed.
  • The study utilized DNA from over 1600 specimens to illustrate that existing classifications of Trebouxia fail to capture its full diversity, recommending a combination of genetic and morphological analyses for better taxonomy and understanding of lichen symbiosis.
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  • Advancements in molecular genetics show that hybridization is common in plants, animals, and fungi, affecting evolution and speciation, particularly in pathogenic fungi, although its impact on fungal lineages has not been widely studied.
  • This research investigates how hybridization influences the development of distinct asexual lichens, specifically examining vagrant forms of the rock-dwelling species in the Rhizoplaca melanophthalma complex.
  • Findings indicate that hybrid speciation likely contributes to the emergence of these lichens, and the study suggests further exploration of hybridization's role in evolutionary processes, urging a closer look at reticulate phylogenies in species classification.
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  • - The study focused on understanding the evolution of nuclear ribosomal DNA (nrDNA) in lichen-forming fungi, particularly analyzing the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region used for DNA barcoding, through high-throughput sequencing of nine species in the Rhizoplaca melanophthalma complex.
  • - Researchers found that nrDNA copy numbers ranged from nine to 48 and observed low intragenomic variation in the ITS region, supporting the monophyly of the species in this complex based on various phylogenetic analyses.
  • - The findings confirm that the ITS region serves as an effective barcode marker for fungi, although limited intragenomic variability was noted, indicating that it might not fully distinguish between different taxa within the R.
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