Rethinking asexuality: the enigmatic case of functional sexual genes in Lepraria (Stereocaulaceae).

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.

Surveying lichen diversity in forests: A comparison of expert mapping and eDNA metabarcoding of bark surfaces.

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.

Resurrection of Müll.Hal. ex M.Fleisch. (Bryophyta, Leucobryaceae) based on phylogenetic and morphometric evidence.

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.

A new species of (Ramalinaceae, Ascomycota) from Thailand, and recognition of subgenus Catillochroma.

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, .

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

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.

The Jurassic epiphytic macrolichen reveals the oldest lichen-plant interaction in a Mesozoic forest ecosystem.

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.

Interpreting phylogenetic conflict: Hybridization in the most speciose genus of lichen-forming fungi.

While advances in sequencing technologies have been invaluable for understanding evolutionary relationships, increasingly large genomic data sets may result in conflicting evolutionary signals that are often caused by biological processes, including hybridization. Hybridization has been detected in a variety of organisms, influencing evolutionary processes such as generating reproductive barriers and mixing standing genetic variation. Here, we investigate the potential role of hybridization in the diversification of the most speciose genus of lichen-forming fungi, Xanthoparmelia.

Contrasting Patterns of Climatic Niche Divergence in A Clade of Lichen-Forming Algae.

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.

Species boundaries in the messy middle-A genome-scale validation of species delimitation in a recently diverged lineage of coastal fog desert lichen fungi.

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.

IMA Genome - F13: Draft genome sequences of , and .

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.

Genome-scale data resolve ancestral rock-inhabiting lifestyle in Dothideomycetes (Ascomycota).

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.

No support for the emergence of lichens prior to the evolution of vascular plants.

The early-successional status of lichens in modern terrestrial ecosystems, together with the role lichen-mediated weathering plays in the carbon cycle, have contributed to the long and widely held assumption that lichens occupied early terrestrial ecosystems prior to the evolution of vascular plants and drove global change during this time. Their poor preservation potential and the classification of ambiguous fossils as lichens or other fungal-algal associations have further reinforced this view. As unambiguous fossil data are lacking to demonstrate the presence of lichens prior to vascular plants, we utilize an alternate approach to assess their historic presence in early terrestrial ecosystems.

Accelerated diversifications in three diverse families of morphologically complex lichen-forming fungi link to major historical events.

Historical mass extinction events had major impacts on biodiversity patterns. The most recent and intensively studied event is the Cretaceous - Paleogene (K-Pg) boundary (ca. 66 million years ago [MYA]).