Fungi other than the lichen mycobiont frequently co-occur within lichen thalli and on the same rock in harsh environments. In these situations dark-pigmented mycelial structures are commonly observed on lichen thalli, where they persist under the same stressful conditions as their hosts. Here we used a comprehensive sampling of lichen-associated fungi from an alpine habitat to assess their phylogenetic relationships with fungi previously known from other niches. The multilocus phylogenetic analyses suggest that most of the 248 isolates belong to the Chaetothyriomycetes and Dothideomycetes, while a minor fraction represents Sordariomycetes and Leotiomycetes. As many lichens also were infected by phenotypically distinct lichenicolous fungi of diverse lineages, it remains difficult to assess whether the culture isolates represent these fungi or are from additional cryptic, extremotolerant fungi within the thalli. Some of these strains represent yet undescribed lineages within Chaethothyriomycetes and Dothideomycetes, whereas other strains belong to genera of fungi, that are known as lichen colonizers, plant and human pathogens, rock-inhabiting fungi, parasites and saprotrophs. The symbiotic structures of the lichen thalli appear to be a shared habitat of phylogenetically diverse stress-tolerant fungi, which potentially benefit from the lichen niche in otherwise hostile habitats.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13225-015-0343-8 | DOI Listing |
BMC Plant Biol
December 2024
Plant Bioenergetics and Biotechnology Laboratory, Department of Botany, Mohanlal Sukhadia University, Udaipur, Rajasthan, India.
Desiccation tolerance is a complex phenomenon observed in the lichen Flavoparmelia ceparata. To understand the reactivation process of desiccated thalli, completely dried samples were rehydrated. The rehydration process of this lichen occurs in two phases.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Toxicol Environ Health A
December 2024
Department of Environmental Sciences, Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas, Akademija, Lithuania.
Tetracycline (TC) antibiotics are one of the class of drugs widely used in clinical practice but also constitute a significant environmental concern. However, the adverse effects of TC on non-target organisms have not been well studied. The aim of this study was to examine the influence of exposure to high levels of TC on thalli of lichens to determine the impact on (1) physiological parameters including integrity of cell membranes, photosynthetic efficiency and viability, (2) oxidative stress response such as membrane lipid peroxidation, and (3) enzymatic antioxidant activities as catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD), ascorbate peroxidase (APX), and glutathione reductase (GR).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPlant Cell Physiol
December 2024
Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste, via L. Giorgieri 10, 34127, Trieste, Italy.
In lichens, accurate description of thallus water status is required to understand growth and photosynthesis dynamics. A recent model suggested that myco- and photobiont layers could have a different water energy status (i.e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAm J Bot
December 2024
Department of Biology, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.
Premise: Southern Africa is a biodiversity hotspot rich in endemic plants and lichen-forming fungi. However, species-level data about lichen photobionts in this region are minimal. We focused on Trebouxia (Chlorophyta), the most common lichen photobiont, to understand how southern African species fit into the global biodiversity of this genus and are distributed across biomes and mycobiont partners.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSci Rep
November 2024
Key Laboratory of Phytochemistry and Natural Medicines, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, 650201, Yunnan, China.
Trans-Himalayan winters are projected to become milder, with shifting precipitation patterns and freeze-thaw cycles; changing stressors for their lichen communities. Lichens from Antarctica and high latitudes are cryoresistant when dry, but susceptible to cell damage if frozen when wet, or subjected to repeated freeze-thaw events. Little is known regarding cryoresistance in high-elevation, mid-latitude lichens.
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