Abstract Detail



Bryology and Lichenology

Clancy, Jeffrey Andrew [1], Yan-yun, Zhang [2], Leavitt, Steven [3].

Providing scale to a known taxonomic unknown – at least a 70-fold increase in species diversity in a cosmopolitan nominal taxon of lichen-forming fungi.

Robust species delimitations provide a foundation for investigating speciation, phylogeography, and conservation. Here we elucidate species boundaries in the cosmopolitan lichen-forming fungal taxon Lecanora polytropa. This nominal taxon is morphologically variable, with distinct populations occurring on all seven continents. To delimit candidate species, we compiled ITS sequence data from populations worldwide. For a subset of the samples, we also generated alignments for 1209 single-copy nuclear genes, in addition to an alignment spanning most of the mitochondrial genome to assess concordance among the ITS, nuclear, and mitochondrial inferences. Species partitions were empirically delimited from the ITS alignment using ASAP & bPTP. We also inferred a phylogeny for the L. polytropa clade using a four-marker dataset. ASAP species delimitations revealed up to 103 species in the L. polytropa clade, with 74 corresponding to the nominal taxon L. polytropa. Inferences from phylogenomic alignments generally supported that these represent evolutionarily independent lineages or species. Less than 10% of the candidate species were comprised of specimens from multiple continents. At local scales, high levels of candidate species were recovered, but generally with limited overlap across regions. Lecanora polytropa likely ranks as one of the largest species complexes of lichen-forming fungi known to date.


1 - Brigham Young University, Biology, 4102, LSB, Brigham Young University , Provo, Utah, 84602, United States
2 - Anhui Normal University , College of Life Science, Wuhu China
3 - Brigham Young University, Biology & M.L. Bean Museum of Life Sciences, 4143 LSB, Provo, UT, 84602, USA

Keywords:
alpine
Cryptic Species
genome skimming
species delimitation.

Presentation Type: Oral Paper
Number: BL1002
Abstract ID:1044
Candidate for Awards:A. J. Sharp Award


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