Arthopyrenia betulicola (Arthopyreniaceae, Dothidiomycetes), an Unusual New Lichenized Fungus From High Elevations of the Southern Appalachian Mountains

The crustose pyrenolichen Arthopyrenia betulicola is described as new to science based on collections from high elevations of Great Smoky Mountains National Park in eastern North America. The species is hypothesized to be endemic to the southern Appalachian Mountains where it occurs only on the bark of mature yellow birch (Betula alleghaniensis). It is a somewhat unusual member of the genus Arthopyrenia s.l. in consistently having a conspicuous photobiont layer of Trentepohlia. It differs from A. cinchonae, with which it is allopatric, by this feature as well as in having differently shaped and narrower ascospores

Most lichens are rare, and degree of rarity is mediated by lichen traits and biotic partners

Aim Understanding ecological distributions of global biodiversity is stymied by incomplete knowledge of drivers of species rarity. These include trade-offs among life-history traits that impact dispersability, competition, reproductive output and speciation and extinction. In this study, we aim to understand potential drivers of rarity in North American lichens. Location and methods With nearly 5500 species and a third of global species richness, North America is a hotspot for lichen biodiversity. Here, we employ a continental-scale dataset on North American lichens to test potential drivers of species rarity. For all species, we determined coarse-scale geographical distribution along with the mode of reproduction, substrate, growth form and photobiont type. Results Our analyses found that most lichens are rare and known only from one or two ecoregions. Rare species are not equally distributed across ecoregions: the Eastern temperate hardwood forests and wet tropical forests of southern Florida harbour the vast majority of rare species. Wet to seasonally wet ecoregions of western North America are home to most remaining narrowly distributed lichen species. In contrast, northern ecoregions along with drier ecoregions including the Great Plains and deserts harbour primarily widespread species. Lichen rarity is significantly associated with species that live on bark or leaves, those with a Trentepohlia photobiont, those that are small, crustose and live closely appressed to their substrates, and those that reproduce sexually, dispersing only the mycobiont. North American lichens are represented unevenly across trait categories, with 65% of them having a crustose growth form, 73% bearing a Trebouxia or other green algal photobiont, 78% living on bark or rock and 77% reproducing sexually. Main conclusions Our study, spanning an entire continental-scale biota, helps to establish a generalized relationship among life-history traits and rarity in lichens and highlights the significance of biotic interactions in structuring biogeographical distributions. &nbsp;</p

Chapter F of the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants as approved by the 11th International Mycological Congress, San Juan, Puerto Rico, July 2018

A revised version of Chapter F of the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants is presented, incorporating amendments approved by the Fungal Nomenclature Session of the 11th International Mycological Congress held in San Juan, Puerto Rico in July 2018. The process leading to the amendments is outlined. Key changes in the San Juan Chapter F are (1) removal of option to use a colon to indicate the sanctioned status of a name, (2) introduction of correctability for incorrectly cited identifiers of names and typifications, and (3) introduction of option to use name identifiers in place of author citations. Examples have been added to aid the interpretation of new Articles and Recommendations, and Examples have also been added to the existing Art. F.3.7 concerning the protection extended to new combinations based on sanctioned names or basionyms of sanctioned names (which has been re-worded), and to Art. F.3.9 concerning typification of names accepted in the sanctioning works

Phylogeny of the genus Loxospora s.l. (Sarrameanales, Lecanoromycetes, Ascomycota), with Chicitaea gen. nov. and five new combinations in Chicitaea and Loxospora

Loxospora is a genus of crustose lichens containing 13 accepted species that can be separated into two groups, based on differences in secondary chemistry that correlate with differences in characters of the sexual reproductive structures (asci and ascospores). Molecular phylogenetic analyses recovered these groups as monophyletic and support their recognition as distinct genera that differ in phenotypic characters. Species containing 2’-O-methylperlatolic acid are transferred to the new genus, Chicitaea Guzow-Krzem., Kukwa &amp;amp; Lendemer and four new combinations are proposed: C. assateaguensis (Lendemer) Guzow-Krzem., Kukwa &amp;amp; Lendemer, C. confusa (Lendemer) Guzow-Krzem., Kukwa &amp;amp; Lendemer, C. cristinae (Guzow-Krzem., Łubek, Kubiak &amp;amp; Kukwa) Guzow-Krzem., Kukwa &amp;amp; Lendemer and C. lecanoriformis (Lumbsch, A.W. Archer &amp;amp; Elix) Guzow-Krzem., Kukwa &amp;amp; Lendemer. The remaining species produce thamnolic acid and represent Loxospora s.str. Haplotype analyses recovered sequences of L. elatina in two distinct groups, one corresponding to L. elatina s.str. and one to Pertusaria chloropolia, the latter being resurrected from synonymy of L. elatina and, thus, requiring the combination, L. chloropolia (Erichsen) Ptach-Styn, Guzow-Krzem., Tønsberg &amp;amp; Kukwa. Sequences of L. ochrophaea were found to be intermixed within the otherwise monophyletic L. elatina s.str. These two taxa, which differ in contrasting reproductive mode and overall geographic distributions, are maintained as distinct, pending further studies with additional molecular loci. Lectotypes are selected for Lecanora elatina, Pertusaria chloropolia and P. chloropolia f. cana. The latter is a synonym of Loxospora chloropolia. New primers for the amplification of mtSSU are also presented

Genome streamlining via complete loss of introns has occurred multiple times in lichenized fungal mitochondria.

Reductions in genome size and complexity are a hallmark of obligate symbioses. The mitochondrial genome displays clear examples of these reductions, with the ancestral alpha-proteobacterial genome size and gene number having been reduced by orders of magnitude in most descendent modern mitochondrial genomes. Here, we examine patterns of mitochondrial evolution specifically looking at intron size, number, and position across 58 species from 21 genera of lichenized Ascomycete fungi, representing a broad range of fungal diversity and niches. Our results show that th

Whole Genome Shotgun Sequencing Detects Greater Lichen Fungal Diversity Than Amplicon-Based Methods in Environmental Samples

In this study we demonstrate the utility of whole genome shotgun (WGS) metagenomics in study organisms with small genomes to improve upon amplicon-based estimates of biodiversity and microbial diversity in environmental samples for the purpose of understanding ecological and evolutionary processes. We generated a database of full-length and near-full-length ribosomal DNA sequence complexes from 273 lichenized fungal species and used this database to facilitate fungal species identification in the southern Appalachian Mountains using low coverage WGS at higher resolution and without the biases of amplicon-based approaches. Using this new database and methods herein developed, we detected between 2.8 and 11 times as many species from lichen fungal propagules by aligning reads from WGS-sequenced environmental samples compared to a traditional amplicon-based approach. We then conducted complete taxonomic diversity inventories of the lichens in each one-hectare plot to assess overlap between standing taxonomic diversity and diversity detected based on propagules present in environmental samples (i.e., the &ldquo;potential&rdquo; of diversity). From the environmental samples, we detected 94 species not observed in organism-level sampling in these ecosystems with high confidence using both WGS and amplicon-based methods. This study highlights the utility of WGS sequence-based approaches in detecting hidden species diversity and demonstrates that amplicon-based methods likely miss important components of fungal diversity. We suggest that the adoption of this method will not only improve understanding of biotic constraints on the distributions of biodiversity but will also help to inform important environmental policy.</p

What Do the First 597 Global Fungal Red List Assessments Tell Us about the Threat Status of Fungi?

Fungal species are not immune to the threats facing animals and plants and are thus also prone to extinction. Yet, until 2015, fungi were nearly absent on the IUCN Red List. Recent efforts to identify fungal species under threat have significantly increased the number of published fungal assessments. The 597 species of fungi published in the 2022-1 IUCN Red List update (21 July 2022) are the basis for the first global review of the extinction risk of fungi and the threats they face. Nearly 50% of the assessed species are threatened, with 10% NT and 9% DD. For regions with a larger number of assessments (i.e., Europe, North America, and South America), subanalyses are provided. Data for lichenized and nonlichenized fungi are also summarized separately. Habitat loss/degradation followed by climate change, invasive species, and pollution are the primary identified threats. Bias in the data is discussed along with knowledge gaps. Suggested actions to address these gaps are provided along with a discussion of the use of assessments to facilitate on-the-ground conservation efforts. A research agenda for conservation mycology to assist in the assessment process and implementation of effective species/habitat management is presented

What Do the First 597 Global Fungal Red List Assessments Tell Us about the Threat Status of Fungi?

Fungal species are not immune to the threats facing animals and plants and are thus also prone to extinction. Yet, until 2015, fungi were nearly absent on the IUCN Red List. Recent efforts to identify fungal species under threat have significantly increased the number of published fungal assessments. The 597 species of fungi published in the 2022-1 IUCN Red List update (21 July 2022) are the basis for the first global review of the extinction risk of fungi and the threats they face. Nearly 50% of the assessed species are threatened, with 10% NT and 9% DD. For regions with a larger number of assessments (i.e., Europe, North America, and South America), subanalyses are provided. Data for lichenized and nonlichenized fungi are also summarized separately. Habitat loss/degradation followed by climate change, invasive species, and pollution are the primary identified threats. Bias in the data is discussed along with knowledge gaps. Suggested actions to address these gaps are provided along with a discussion of the use of assessments to facilitate on-the-ground conservation efforts. A research agenda for conservation mycology to assist in the assessment process and implementation of effective species/habitat management is presented

What Do the First 597 Global Fungal Red List Assessments Tell Us about the Threat Status of Fungi?

Fungal species are not immune to the threats facing animals and plants and are thus also prone to extinction. Yet, until 2015, fungi were nearly absent on the IUCN Red List. Recent efforts to identify fungal species under threat have significantly increased the number of published fungal assessments. The 597 species of fungi published in the 2022-1 IUCN Red List update (21 July 2022) are the basis for the first global review of the extinction risk of fungi and the threats they face. Nearly 50% of the assessed species are threatened, with 10% NT and 9% DD. For regions with a larger number of assessments (i.e., Europe, North America, and South America), subanalyses are provided. Data for lichenized and nonlichenized fungi are also summarized separately. Habitat loss/degradation followed by climate change, invasive species, and pollution are the primary identified threats. Bias in the data is discussed along with knowledge gaps. Suggested actions to address these gaps are provided along with a discussion of the use of assessments to facilitate on-the-ground conservation efforts. A research agenda for conservation mycology to assist in the assessment process and implementation of effective species/habitat management is presented