Phytoplankton, as primary producers, play a key role in aquatic ecosystems. Their community turnover is shaped by morphological traits that enable adaptation to diverse abiotic and biotic factors. Yet, the temporal scale of these dynamics remains poorly understood due to limited high-frequency sampling studies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFClimatic 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.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCrustose Verrucariaceae lichens form a distinctive black belt on seashores all over the world. This lifestyle is apparently enabled by a specific set of photobionts. However, their diversity is understudied.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe studied the biodiversity of Asterochloris photobionts found in Bolivian lichens to better understand their global spatial distribution and adaptation strategies in the context of a worldwide phylogeny of the genus. Based on nuclear ITS rDNA, the chloroplast rbcL gene and the actin type I gene we reconstructed a phylogenetic tree that recovered nine new Asterochloris lineages, while 32 Bolivian photobiont samples were assigned to 12 previously recognized Asterochloris lineages. We also show that some previously discovered Asterochloris photobiont species and lineages may occur in a broader spectrum of climatic conditions, and mycobiont species and photobionts may show different preferences along an altitude gradient.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe view of lichens as a symbiosis only between a mycobiont and a photobiont has been challenged by discoveries of diverse associated organisms. Specific basidiomycete yeasts in the cortex of a range of macrolichens were hypothesized to influence the lichens' phenotype. The present study explores the occurrence and diversity of cystobasidiomycete yeasts in the lichen genus Cladonia.
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