Free Standard AU & NZ Shipping For All Book Orders Over $80!
Register      Login
Australian Systematic Botany Australian Systematic Botany Society
Taxonomy, biogeography and evolution of plants
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Species recognition and phylogeny of Thelotrema species in Australia (Ostropales, Ascomycota)

H. Thorsten Lumbsch A E , Armin Mangold A B , María P. Martín C and John A. Elix D
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Department of Botany, The Field Museum, 1400 S. Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60605, USA.

B Universität Duisburg-Essen, Botanisches Institut, Universitätsstraße 5, 45117 Essen, Germany.

C Department of Mycology, Real Jardín Botánico, CSIC, Plaza de Murillo 2, 28014 Madrid, Spain.

D Department of Chemistry, Building 33, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia.

E Corresponding author. Email: tlumbsch@fieldmuseum.org

This paper is dedicated to our colleague and friend Ana Crespo de las Casas (Madrid), on the occasion of her 60th birthday.

Australian Systematic Botany 21(3) 217-227 https://doi.org/10.1071/SB07049
Submitted: 31 December 2007  Accepted: 5 May 2008   Published: 20 August 2008

Abstract

Species circumscriptions based on morphological data are difficult in crustose lichens with limited characters as they often show remarkable variability. An example is the genus Thelotrema s.str., a speciose genus of mostly tropical lichens. Morphological studies on Australian Thelotrema spp. were accompanied by a phylogenetic analysis of mt SSU rDNA sequence data of 19 species, including 25 newly obtained sequences. We performed maximum parsimony and Bayesian phylogenetic analyses of 50 samples, representing 25 species. Our results indicate that more species need to be accepted in Thelotrema than previously thought. Subtle morphological differences were found to be associated with independent lineages in the phylogenetic trees. Furthermore, monophyly of Thelotrema s.str. is strongly supported. On the basis of the corroboration of morphological evidence by molecular data, the new species Thelotrema capetribulense Mangold, T. crespoae Mangold, Lumbsch & Elix, T. oleosum Mangold, and T. pseudosubtile Mangold are described. The new combinations Chapsa phlyctidioides (Müll.Arg.) Mangold and Thelotrema defossum (Müll.Arg.) Mangold are proposed.


Acknowledgements

This study was supported financially by a NSF grant (DEB-0516116) to The Field Museum (PI: HTL), a grant from Australian Biological Researches Study (ABRS) to HTL and JAE, and a SYNTHESYS grant of the EU to AM (ES-TAF 691). Newly obtained DNA sequences were generated in the Pritzker Laboratory for Molecular Systematics and Evolution at the Field Museum and at the Real Jardín Botánico de Madrid. Fabian Ernemann (Chicago) is thanked for performing some of the work in the molecular laboratory. The curators of cited herbaria and private collectors are thanked for sending material on loan for examination.


References


Acharius E (1803) ‘Methodus qua omnes detectos lichenes secundum organa carpomorpha ad genera, species et varietates redigere atque observationibus illustrare tentavit Erik Acharius.’ (Stockholm)

Arguello A, Del Prado R, Cubas P, Crespo A (2007) Parmelina quercina (Parmeliaceae, Lecanorales) includes four phylogenetically supported morphospecies. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 91, 455–467.
Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | open url image1

Brodo IM (1978) Changing concepts regarding chemical diversity in lichens. Lichenologist 10, 1–11.
Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | CAS | open url image1

Brodo IM (1986) Interpreting chemical variation in lichens for systematic purposes. The Bryologist 89, 132–138.
Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | CAS | open url image1

Buschbom J, Mueller GM (2006) Testing ‘species pair’ hypotheses: evolutionary processes in the lichen-forming species complex Porpidia flavocoerulescens and Porpidia melinodes.  Molecular Biology and Evolution 23, 574–586.
Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | PubMed | open url image1

Cracraft J (1983) Species concepts and speciation analysis. Current Ornithology 1, 159–187. open url image1

Cubero OF, Crespo A, Esslinger TL, Lumbsch HT (2004) Molecular phylogeny of the genus Physconia (Ascomycota, Lecanorales) inferred from a Bayesian analysis of nuclear ITS rDNA sequences. Mycological Research 108, 498–505.
Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | PubMed | open url image1

Culberson CF (1972) Improved conditions and new data for the identification of lichen products by a standardized thin-layer chromatographic method. Journal of Chromatography A 72, 113–125.
Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | CAS | open url image1

Culberson WL (1986) Chemistry and sibling speciation in the lichen-forming fungi—Ecological and biological considerations. The Bryologist 89, 123–131.
Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | CAS | open url image1

Divakar PK, Molina MC, Lumbsch HT, Crespo A (2005) Parmelia barrenoae, a new lichen species related to Parmelia sulcata (Parmeliaceae) based on molecular and morphological data. Lichenologist 37, 37–46.
Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | open url image1

Divakar PK, Amo De Paz G, del Prado R, Esslinger TL, Crespo A (2007) Upper cortex anatomy corroborates phylogenetic hypothesis in species of Physconia (Ascomycota, Lecanoromycetes). Mycological Research 111, 1311–1320.
Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | PubMed | open url image1

Egan RS (1986) Correlations and non-correlations of chemical variation patterns with lichen morphology and geography. The Bryologist 89, 99–110.
Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | CAS | open url image1

Feige GB, Lumbsch HT, Huneck S, Elix JA (1993) Identification of lichen substances by a standardized high-performance liquid-chromatographic method. Journal of Chromatography 646, 417–427.
Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | open url image1

Felsenstein J (1985) Confidence-limits on phylogenies—an approach using the bootstrap. Evolution 39, 783–791.
Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | open url image1

Frisch A, Kalb K, Grube M (2006) Contributions towards a new systematics of the lichen family Thelotremataceae. Bibliotheca Lichenologica 92, 1–539. open url image1

Hale ME (1980) Generic delimitation in the lichen family Thelotremataceae. Mycotaxon 11, 130–138. open url image1

Hale ME (1981) A revision of the lichen family Thelotremataceae in Sri Lanka. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) Botany Series 8, 227–332. open url image1

Hawksworth DL (1976) Lichen chemotaxonomy. In ‘Lichenology: progress and problems’. (Eds DH Brown, DL Hawksworth, RH Bailey) pp. 139–184. (Academic Press: London)

Högnabba F, Wedin M (2003) Molecular phylogeny of the Sphaerophorus globosus species complex. Cladistics 19, 224–232.
Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | open url image1

Huelsenbeck JP, Ronquist F (2001) Mrbayes: Bayesian inference of phylogenetic trees. Bioinformatics 17, 754–755.
Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | PubMed | open url image1

Kalb K (2001) The lichen genus Topeliopsis in Australia and remarks on Australian Thelotremataceae. Mycotaxon 79, 319–328. open url image1

Kantvilas G, Věĕzda A (2000) Studies on the lichen family Thelotremataceae in Tasmania. The genus Chroodiscus and its relatives. Lichenologist 32, 325–357.
Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | open url image1

Kroken S, Taylor JW (2001) A gene genealogical approach to recognize phylogenetic species boundaries in the lichenized fungus Letharia.  Mycologia 93, 38–53.
Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | open url image1

LaGreca S (1999) A phylogenetic evaluation of the Ramalina americana chemotype complex (Lichenized Ascomycota, Ramalinaceae) based on rDNA ITS sequence data. The Bryologist 102, 602–618.
Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | open url image1

Lücking R, Del Prado R, Lumbsch HT, Will-Wolf S, Aptroot A, Sipman H, Umaña L, Chaves JL (2008) Phylogenetic patterns of morphological and chemical characters and reproductive mode in the Heterodermia obscurata group in Costa Rica (Ascomycota, Physciaceae). Systematics and Biodiversity 5, 31–41. open url image1

Lumbsch HT (1998 a) The taxonomic use of metabolic data in lichen-forming fungi. In ‘Chemical fungal taxonomy’. (Eds JC Frisvad, PD Bridge, DK Arora) pp. 345–387. (M. Dekker: New York)

Lumbsch HT (1998b) The use of metabolic data in lichenology at the species and subspecific levels. Lichenologist 30, 357–367. open url image1

Lumbsch HT, Mangold A (2007) Diploschistes elixii (Ostropales, Thelotremataceae), an overlooked species from Western Australia. Lichenologist 39, 459–462. open url image1

Lumbsch HT, Nelsen MP, Lücking R (2008) The phylogenetic position of Haematommataceae (Lecanorales, Ascomycota). Nova Hedwigia 86, 105–114.
Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | open url image1

Mangold A, Elix JA, Lumbsch HT (2006) The Myriotrema wightii group (Ostropales, Ascomycota) in Australia. Nova Hedwigia 83, 275–291.
Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | open url image1

Mangold A, Elix JA, Lumbsch HT (2007a) The norstictic acid containing Thelotrema species in Australia. Bibliotheca Lichenologica 95, 459–470. open url image1

Mangold A, Elix JA, Lumbsch HT (2007b) Ocellularia species with a cone-shaped columella in Australia. Bibliotheca Lichenologica 96, 193–208. open url image1

Mangold A, Martín MP, Lücking R, Lumbsch HT (2008) Molecular phylogeny suggests synonymy of Thelotremataceae within Graphidaceae (Ascomycota: Ostropales). Taxon in press , open url image1

Mayr E (1963) ‘Animal species and evolution.’ (Harvard University Press: Cambridge, MA)

Molina MD, Crespo A, Blanco O, Lumbsch HT, Hawksworth DL (2004) Phylogenetic relationships and species concepts in Parmelia s.str. (Parmeliaceae) inferred from nuclear ITS rDNA and beta-tubulin sequences. Lichenologist 36, 37–54.
Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | open url image1

Page RDM (1996) Treeview: an application to display phylogenetic trees on personal computers. Computer Applications in the Biosciences 12, 357–358.
CAS | PubMed |
open url image1

Purvis OW, Jørgensen PM, James PW (1995) The lichen genus Thelotrema Ach. in Europe. Bibliotheca Lichenologica 58, 335–360. open url image1

Rodriguez F, Oliver JL, Marin A, Medina JR (1990) The general stochastic-model of nucleotide substitution. Journal of Theoretical Biology 142, 485–501.
Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | PubMed | open url image1

Rogers RW (1989) Chemical variation and the species concept in lichenized ascomycetes. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 101, 229–239.
Crossref |
open url image1

Salisbury G (1972) Thelotrema Ach. sect. Thelotrema. 1. The T. lepadinum group. Lichenologist 5, 262–274.
Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | open url image1

Swofford DL (1993) PAUP—a computer-program for phylogenetic inference using maximum parsimony. Journal of General Physiology 102, A9. open url image1

Tehler A, Källersjö M (2001) Parmeliopsis ambigua and P. hyperopta (Parmeliaceae): species or chemotypes? Lichenologist 33, 403–408.
Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | open url image1

Thompson JD, Higgins DG, Gibson TJ (1994) Clustal-W—improving the sensitivity of progressive multiple sequence alignment through sequence weighting, position-specific gap penalties and weight matrix choice. Nucleic Acids Research 22, 4673–4680.
Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | PubMed | open url image1

Wiens JJ, Penkrot TA (2002) Delimiting species using DNA and morphological variation and discordant species limits in spiny lizards (Sceloporus). Systematic Biology 51, 69–91.
Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | PubMed | open url image1

Wirtz N, Printzen C, Lumbsch HT (2008) The delimitation of Antarctic and bipolar species of Usnea, Neuropogon (Ascomycota, Lecanorales): a cohesion approach of species recognition for the Usnea perpusilla complex. Mycological Research 112, 472–484.
Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | PubMed | open url image1

Zhou S, Stanosz GR (2001) Primers for amplification of mt SSU rDNA, and a phylogenetic study of Botryosphaeria and associated anamorphic Fungi. Mycological Research 105, 1033–1044.
Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | open url image1

Zoller S, Scheidegger C, Sperisen C (1999) PCR primers for the amplification of mitochondrial small subunit ribosomal DNA of lichen-forming ascomycetes. Lichenologist 31, 511–516. open url image1