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Morphological variation, photobiont association and ITS phylogeny of Chaenotheca phaeocephala and C. subroscida (Coniocybaceae, lichenized ascomycetes)
Author(s) -
Tibell Leif,
Beck Andreas
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
nordic journal of botany
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.333
H-Index - 33
eISSN - 1756-1051
pISSN - 0107-055X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1756-1051.2001.tb00824.x
Subject(s) - biology , monophyly , botany , taxon , lichen , morphology (biology) , phylogenetics , internal transcribed spacer , ribosomal dna , zoology , evolutionary biology , phylogenetic tree , genetics , gene , clade
Chaenotheca phaeocephala and C. subroscida have been characterized by differences in their morphology and ecology. They are, however, morphologically plastic and sometimes seem to intergrade. It has been suspected that the differences in morphology between these two taxa could possibly be phenotypic and caused by their occurrence in different habitats and/or by the association with different photobionts. To test if there is a genetic difference between the species ITS1–5.8S‐ITS2 rDNA sequences of six specimens of the mycobiont of C. phaeocephala and five of C. subroscida were compared. Further the ITS1–5.8S‐ITS2 rDNA sequences of the photobiont of one specimens of C. phaeocephala and six of C. subroscida were compared to each other and to other species of Trebouxia. The mycobiont sequences of both C. phaeocephala and C. subroscida were monophyletic, substantially different and the groups had strong supports. They also proved to be associated with different Trebouxia species, C. phaeocephala with T. arboricola and Chaenotheca subroscida with T. jamesii. The morphologically based concepts of C. phaeocephala and C. subroscida thus not merely represent phenotypic variation but also are associated with considerable genetic differences in the extremes of the ITS1–5.8S‐ITS2 rDNA region.