Lichens: from genome to ecosystems in a changing world

Fungi that form stable associations with algae and/or cyanobacteria, so-called lichens, are among the evolutionary most successful symbiotic systems with about 28,000 estimated species. In addition, certain groups of bacteria have recently been found to be present in lichen thalli. This symbiotic system consists of partners from at least two domains of life and major clades of eukaryotes and prokaryotes. Thus, it is an excellent model to study the evolution of cooperation. The International Association for Lichenology (IAL) is the society for all scientists working on different aspects of the lichen symbiosis, from diversity and evolution over ecology and physiology to conservation and bioprospecting. Between January 9-13, 2012 the 7th International Symposium of the IAL7 attracted about 300 lichenologists from all over the world (47 countries) to come to Bangkok, Thailand. At the beginning of most days during the meeting, a plenary talk was given on recent progress in different areas of lichenology. Two speakers of plenary talks agreed to prepare a review paper on their presentations. In addition, three of the other contributors to the general symposia agreed to write review papers on recent progress in their fields of lichen research. Four of these five contributions are published following the editorial in this issue of MycoKeys, while one manuscript has been published in the previous issue (Triebel et al. 2012). The scope of the contributions spans from using information technology to handle