Identifying algal symbionts in lichen symbioses

Abstract

Lichens are a ubiquitous terrestrial symbiosis of fungi with photoautotrophic microorganisms. The identification of the hosted photoautotrophs is notoriously difficult. Molecular data to clarify evolutionary relationships on the involved algal and cyanobacterial lineages are accumulating, but the assignment to species is challenging for various reasons. One of the challenges is the limited knowledge on the alpha diversity of photoautotrophs. New lineages are being discovered with increasing amounts of sequencing. Identification tools could incorporate these aspects, by routinely updating the assignment process. We propose the establishment of a classification tool using algal sequence data from public databases.