Promiscuity in Lichens Follows Clear Rules: Partner Switching in Is Regulated by Climatic Factors and Soil Chemistry.

Climatic factors, soil chemistry and geography are considered as major factors affecting lichen distribution and diversity. To determine how these factors limit or support the associations between the symbiotic partners, we revise the lichen symbiosis as a network of relationships here. More than one thousand thalli of terricolous lichens were collected at sites with a wide range of soil chemical properties from seven biogeographical regions of Europe.

The guilds in green algal lichens-an insight into the life of terrestrial symbiotic communities.

Lichenized algae and cyanobacteria are known to be shared and selected by unrelated lichen-forming fungi coexisting in so-called photobiont-mediated guilds. Life in such a guild could be crucial for the survival of a large group of lichen fungi dependent on horizontal transmission of photobionts. Here, we investigate frequent lichen phycobionts of the genus Trebouxia in rock-dwelling lichen communities.

The complexity of symbiotic interactions influences the ecological amplitude of the host: A case study in Stereocaulon (lichenized Ascomycota).

Symbiosis plays a fundamental role in nature. Lichens are among the best known, globally distributed symbiotic systems whose ecology is shaped by the requirements of all symbionts forming the holobiont. The widespread lichen-forming fungal genus Stereocaulon provides a suitable model to study the ecology of microscopic green algal symbionts (i.

Assembling the challenging puzzle of algal biodiversity: species delimitation within the genus Asterochloris (Trebouxiophyceae, Chlorophyta).

The genus Asterochloris represents one of the most common, widespread, and diverse taxa of lichen photobionts. In this report, we describe and characterize six new species (A. echinata, A.

The symbiotic playground of lichen thalli--a highly flexible photobiont association in rock-inhabiting lichens.

The development of characteristic thallus structures in lichen-forming fungi requires the association with suitable photoautotrophic partners. Previous work suggests that fungi have a specific range of compatible photobionts and that selected algal strains are also correlated with the habitat conditions. We selected the rock-inhabiting crust lichen Protoparmeliopsis muralis, which exhibits high flexibility in algal associations.

Do photobionts influence the ecology of lichens? A case study of environmental preferences in symbiotic green alga Asterochloris (Trebouxiophyceae).

The distribution patterns of symbiotic algae are thought to be conferred mainly by their hosts, however, they may originate in algal environmental requirements as well. In lichens, predominantly terrestrial associations of fungi with algae or cyanobacteria, the ecological preferences of photobionts have not been directly studied so far. Here, we examine the putative environmental requirements in lichenized alga Asterochloris, and search for the existence of ecological guilds in Asterochloris-associating lichens.

Photobiont diversity in lichens from metal-rich substrata based on ITS rDNA sequences.

The photobiont is considered as the more sensitive partner of lichen symbiosis in metal pollution. For this reason the presence of a metal tolerant photobiont in lichens may be a key factor of ecological success of lichens growing on metal polluted substrata. The photobiont inventory was examined for terricolous lichen community growing in Cu mine-spoil heaps derived by historical mining.

Epiphytic lichen diversity in central European oak forests: assessment of the effects of natural environmental factors and human influences.

We investigated lichen diversity in temperate oak forests using standardized protocols. Forty-eight sites were sampled in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. The effects of natural environmental predictors and human influences on lichen diversity (lichen diversity value, species richness) were analysed by means of correlation tests.

Evolutionary inferences based on ITS rDNA and actin sequences reveal extensive diversity of the common lichen alga Asterochloris (Trebouxiophyceae, Chlorophyta).

The genus Asterochloris is one of the most common lichen photobionts. We present a molecular investigation of 41 cultured strains, for which nuclear-encoded ITS rDNA and partial actin I sequences were determined. The loci studied revealed considerable differences in their evolutionary dynamics as well as sequence variation.