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Advances in Lichen Species
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Advances in Lichen Species

A special issue of Journal of Fungi (ISSN 2309-608X). This special issue belongs to the section "Fungal Evolution, Biodiversity and Systematics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 October 2023) | Viewed by 7440

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Juri Nascimbene

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Biological, Geological, and Environmental Sciences, Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna, Bologna, Italy
Interests: lichenology; floristics; taxonomy; distribution; conservation of lichens in terrestrial ecosystems
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Gabriele Gheza

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Biological, Geological, and Environmental Sciences, Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna, Bologna, Italy
Interests: lichenology; floristics; ecology; conservation and metabolites of lichens, particularly in human-impacted landscapes

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Lichens are increasingly recognized as an important component of terrestrial ecosystems in terms of biodiversity and functioning, providing an indispensable background to the provision of multiple ecosystem services. However, they are often neglected in conservation practices and biodiversity inventories, resulting in poor recognition in nature management policies. This is likely related to the scarce detectability of several species, and to the lack of fundamental information on their taxonomy, distribution, ecology, and eco-physiology.

This Special Issue of Journal of Fungi is therefore intended to stimulate and aggregate original research devoted to increase our knowledge on lichen species from different points of view. Thus, the scope of the Issue ranges from phylogenetic and taxonomic aspects to species inventories as well as ecological and physiological research. Multiple approaches are very appreciated from molecular analyses to species traits. Review papers providing the state of the art and new research perspectives on narrowly defined topics are also welcome.

Prof. Dr. Juri Nascimbene
Dr. Gabriele Gheza
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Journal of Fungi is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • species phylogeny
  • species ecology
  • species traits
  • species inventory
  • species conservation

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 2119 KiB  
Article
A Custom Regional DNA Barcode Reference Library for Lichen-Forming Fungi of the Intermountain West, USA, Increases Successful Specimen Identification
by Michael Kerr and Steven D. Leavitt
J. Fungi 2023, 9(7), 741; https://doi.org/10.3390/jof9070741 - 12 Jul 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1115
Abstract
DNA barcoding approaches provide powerful tools for characterizing fungal diversity. However, DNA barcoding is limited by poor representation of species-level diversity in fungal sequence databases. Can the development of custom, regionally focused DNA reference libraries improve species-level identification rates for lichen-forming fungi? To [...] Read more.
DNA barcoding approaches provide powerful tools for characterizing fungal diversity. However, DNA barcoding is limited by poor representation of species-level diversity in fungal sequence databases. Can the development of custom, regionally focused DNA reference libraries improve species-level identification rates for lichen-forming fungi? To explore this question, we created a regional ITS database for lichen-forming fungi (LFF) in the Intermountain West of the United States. The custom database comprised over 4800 sequences and represented over 600 formally described and provisional species. Lichen communities were sampled at 11 sites throughout the Intermountain West, and LFF diversity was characterized using high-throughput ITS2 amplicon sequencing. We compared the species-level identification success rates from our bulk community samples using our regional ITS database and the widely used UNITE database. The custom regional database resulted in significantly higher species-level assignments (72.3%) of candidate species than the UNITE database (28.3–34.2%). Within each site, identification of candidate species ranged from 72.3–82.1% using the custom database; and 31.5–55.4% using the UNITE database. These results highlight that developing regional databases may accelerate a wide range of LFF research by improving our ability to characterize species-level diversity using DNA barcoding. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Lichen Species)
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12 pages, 5290 KiB  
Article
Aggregation of Italian Lichen Data in ITALIC 7.0
by Stefano Martellos, Matteo Conti and Pier Luigi Nimis
J. Fungi 2023, 9(5), 556; https://doi.org/10.3390/jof9050556 - 11 May 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1889
Abstract
The creation of a coordinated publishing and aggregation system of biodiversity data is a challenging task, which calls for the adoption of open data standards. ITALIC, the information system on Italian lichens, originated from the conversion of the first Italian checklist into a [...] Read more.
The creation of a coordinated publishing and aggregation system of biodiversity data is a challenging task, which calls for the adoption of open data standards. ITALIC, the information system on Italian lichens, originated from the conversion of the first Italian checklist into a database. While the first version was “frozen”, the present version is continuously updated and provides access to several other data sources and services, such as ecological indicator values, ecological notes and information, traits, images, digital identification keys, etc. The identification keys especially are an ongoing work that will lead to a complete national flora by 2026. Last year, new services were added, one for aligning lists of names with the national checklist, the other for aggregating occurrence data deriving from the digitization of 13 Italian herbaria, forming a total of ca. 88,000 records, which are distributed under a CC BY license and can be exported as CSV files in the Darwin Core format. An aggregator for lichen data will encourage the national community of lichenologists to produce and aggregate further data sets, and it will stimulate data reuse according to the paradigms of open science. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Lichen Species)
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16 pages, 2310 KiB  
Article
Biosynthetic Potential of Hypogymnia Holobionts: Insights into Secondary Metabolite Pathways
by Nadim Ahmad, Manfred Ritz, Anjuli Calchera, Jürgen Otte, Imke Schmitt, Thomas Brueck and Norbert Mehlmer
J. Fungi 2023, 9(5), 546; https://doi.org/10.3390/jof9050546 - 09 May 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1819
Abstract
Lichens are symbiotic associations consisting of a photobiont (algae or cyanobacteria) and a mycobiont (fungus). They are known to produce a variety of unique secondary metabolites. To access this biosynthetic potential for biotechnological applications, deeper insights into the biosynthetic pathways and corresponding gene [...] Read more.
Lichens are symbiotic associations consisting of a photobiont (algae or cyanobacteria) and a mycobiont (fungus). They are known to produce a variety of unique secondary metabolites. To access this biosynthetic potential for biotechnological applications, deeper insights into the biosynthetic pathways and corresponding gene clusters are necessary. Here we provide a comprehensive view of the biosynthetic gene clusters of all organisms comprising a lichen thallus: fungi, green algae, and bacteria. We present two high-quality PacBio metagenomes, in which we identified a total of 460 biosynthetic gene clusters. Lichen mycobionts yielded 73–114 clusters, other lichen associated ascomycetes 8–40, green algae of the genus Trebouxia 14–19, and lichen-associated bacteria 101–105 clusters. The mycobionts contained mainly T1PKSs, followed by NRPSs, and terpenes; Trebouxia reads harbored mainly clusters linked to terpenes, followed by NRPSs and T3PKSs. Other lichen-associated ascomycetes and bacteria contained a mix of diverse biosynthetic gene clusters. In this study, we identified for the first time the biosynthetic gene clusters of entire lichen holobionts. The yet untapped biosynthetic potential of two species of the genus Hypogymnia is made accessible for further research. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Lichen Species)
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25 pages, 28527 KiB  
Article
Freshwater Lichens, Including New Species in the Genera Verrucaria, Placopyrenium and Circinaria, Associated with Lobothallia hydrocharis (Poelt & Nimis) Sohrabi & Nimis from Watercourses of Sardinia
by Juri Nascimbene, Pier Luigi Nimis, Johanna Klüßendorf and Holger Thüs
J. Fungi 2023, 9(3), 380; https://doi.org/10.3390/jof9030380 - 21 Mar 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1971
Abstract
This work summarizes the results of the exploration of freshwater lichen biota on the island of Sardinia associated with the regional flagship species Lobothallia hydrocharis, a large-sized crustose lichen from the splash zone along mountain streams, so far known from Sardinia only. [...] Read more.
This work summarizes the results of the exploration of freshwater lichen biota on the island of Sardinia associated with the regional flagship species Lobothallia hydrocharis, a large-sized crustose lichen from the splash zone along mountain streams, so far known from Sardinia only. Molecular data were used to confirm its distinctiveness from other taxa and its systematic placement and to identify critical taxa among its associated lichen biota. We found 25 species of lichenized fungi, including three species new to science in the genera Verrucaria, Placopyrenium, and Circinaria, and seven species new to Sardinia (Hydropunctaria rheithrophila, Ionaspis chrysophana, I. odora, Verrucaria aquatilis, V. collematodes, V. pseudovirescens), or new to Southern Europe (V. devensis). Specific traits for the freshwater lichen biota of Sardinia were identified and compared to those reported from freshwater sites in the Alps and Carpathian mountains, e.g., a relative scarcity of subgelatinous lichens. Parasitic or epilichenic interactions were found frequently but only in the splash zone and not in the permanently submerged zone, i.e., two parasitic Placopyrenium species, and clearly lichenicolous thalli of Kuettlingeria atroflava and Lobothallia hydrocharis. Due to its specific trait profile and the great potential for the discovery of new species, we recommend the inclusion of Sardinian and further Mediterranean sites in continental-scale monitoring programs for freshwater lichens. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Lichen Species)
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