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Chemical properties of key metabolites determine the global distribution of lichens
Author(s) -
Schweiger Andreas H.,
Ullmann G. Matthias,
Nürk Nicolai M.,
Triebel Dagmar,
Schobert Rainer,
Rambold Gerhard
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
ecology letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.852
H-Index - 265
eISSN - 1461-0248
pISSN - 1461-023X
DOI - 10.1111/ele.13930
Subject(s) - lichen , algae , symbiosis , green algae , fungus , ecology , adaptation (eye) , biology , ecological niche , botany , environmental chemistry , chemistry , habitat , genetics , neuroscience , bacteria
In lichen symbioses, fungal secondary metabolites provide UV protection on which lichen algae such as trebouxiophycean green algae—the most prominent group of photobionts in lichen symbioses—sensitively depend. These metabolites differ in their UV absorbance capability and solvability, and thus vary in their propensity of being leached from the lichen body in humid and warm environments, with still unknown implications for the global distribution of lichens. In this study covering more than 10,000 lichenised fungal species, we show that the occurrence of fungal‐derived metabolites in combination with their UV absorbance capability and their probability of being leached in warm and humid environments are important eco‐evolutionary drivers of global lichen distribution. Fungal‐derived UV protection seems to represent an indirect environmental adaptation in which the lichen fungus invests to protect the trebouxiophycean photobiont from high UV radiation in warm and humid climates and, by doing this, secures its carbon source.