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Abstract
The phylogenetic relationships of many lichen-forming perithecioid ascomycetes are unknown. We generated nuLSU and mtSSU rDNA sequences of members of seven families of pyrenocarpous lichens and used a Bayesian framework to infer a phylogenetic estimate. Members of the perithecioid Protothelenellaceae, Thelenellaceae and Thrombiaceae surprisingly cluster within the mainly discocarpous Lecanoromycetes, while Strigulaceae, Verrucariaceae and Pyrenulaceae are related to the ascolocular Chaetothyriomycetes. Micromorphological studies of the ascomata showed that the two main groups of pyrenocarpous lichen-forming fungi differ in their ascus types. The Strigulaceae, Verrucariaceae and Pyrenulaceae have apically and laterally thick-walled asci, whereas the Thelenellaceae, Protothelenellaceae and Thrombiaceae have only apically thickened asci. The latter two show ring-shaped amyloid apical structures. Based on morphological and molecular evidence we propose to reduce Thrombiaceae to synonymy with Protothelenellaceae.
We greatly acknowledge the help of our friend Zdeněk Palice (Prague) for providing several of the valuable pyrenolichens examined in this study. Special thanks go to Helmut Mayrhofer (Graz) for helpful comments on the manuscript. Many thanks also go to Steffi Kautz (Essen) for assistance with DNA extractions. Sequencing was performed in the Pritzker Lab for Molecular Systematics and Evolution at The Field Museum (Chicago). We are very grateful to Robert Lücking (Chicago) for supplying samples of Psoroglaena and Aspidothelium to study their ascus-types. This study was financially supported by a fellowship within the Postdoc-Program of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) to IS, and a start-up fund from the Field Museum to HTL.