Journey from the West: Did tropical Graphidaceae (lichenized Ascomycota: Ostropales) evolve from a saxicolous ancestor along the American Pacific coast?

Abstract

• Premise of the study: This study elucidates the phylogenetic position of a unique taxon of Graphidaceae occurring on rock in coastal desert areas, assessing its importance for our understanding of the evolution of the largest family of tropical lichenized fungi.• Methods: We used maximum likelihood and Bayesian approaches to reconstruct a three‐gene phylogeny of Graphidaceae and a Bayesian molecular clock approach to estimate divergence dates for major clades, as well as Bayesian ancestral ecogeography state analysis.• Key results: The new genus Redonographa represents a new subfamily, Redonographoideae, sister to subfamily Graphidoideae. Redonographa is exclusively saxicolous and restricted to the American Pacific coast from California to central Chile, including Galapagos. It contains four species: Redonographa chilensis comb. nov., R. saxiseda comb. nov., R. saxorum comb. nov., and R. galapagoensis sp. nov. The genus Gymnographopsis, with a similar ecogeography but differing in excipular carbonization and chemistry, is also included in Redonographoideae, with the species G. chilena from Chile and G. latispora from South Africa. Molecular clock analysis indicates that Redonographoideae diverged from Graphidoideae about 132 million years ago (Ma) in the Early Cretaceous.• Conclusions: The divergence date for subfamilies Redonographoideae and Graphidoideae coincides with the early breakup of Gondwana and ancient origin of the Atacama Desert. However, the common ancestor of Redonographoideae plus Graphidoideae was reconstructed to be tropical‐epiphytic. Thus, even if Redonographoideae is subtropical‐saxicolous, the hypothesis that Graphidoideae evolved from a subtropical‐saxicolous ancestor is not supported.

Molecular epidemiology of HIV-1 infection in Europe: An overview

“…Here, significant numbers of mainly institutionalised children were infected in the late 1980s via transfusion of infected blood products or unsafe parenteral treatments (Apetrei et al, 1997). Estimates suggest that as many as 10,000 children were infected (Lucking et al, 2013). However, B clade has been found among MSM and heterosexuals at approximately similar rates and have in fact been found to have originated from Western Europe .…”

Endemism in the genus Pertusaria (Pertusariales, lichenized Ascomycota) from the Galapagos Islands

“…As in other recent revisions of Galapagos lichens the diversity was much greater than reported previously (Aptroot and Bungartz 2007, Aptroot and Sparrius 2009, Aptroot et al 2008, Bungartz 2008, Ertz et al 2011, Truong et al 2011, Knudsen and Bungartz 2013, 2014, Lücking et al 2013. As a consequence, lichens must now be considered among the most diverse organisms of Galapagos terrestrial biodiversity.…”

“…Weber et al (1977, P. 120) and to some extent Weber and Gradstein (1984) first discussed tentative distribution patterns of Galapagos lichens, suggesting that saxicolous species along the Galapagos coast and the dry lowlands show high affinities with species from Chile. Recent studies of Roccella by Tehler et al (2009), and of Redonographa by Lücking et al (2013) support this hypothesis. However, among the Galapagos Pertusaria no species fit this pattern.…”

Five new species of Graphidaceae (Ascomycota, Ostropales) from Thailand

“…Graphidaceae constitutes the largest family of crustose tropical lichens with about 2100 accepted species (Rivas Plata et al 2012;Lücking et al 2013;Cáceres et al 2014; Van den Broeck et al 2014;Lumbsch et al 2014b;Kraichak et al 2014). The family has its center of distribution in the tropics, but also occurs in temperate regions with a smaller number of species, in some cases even extending towards the SubAntarctic region.…”