Message - 7th IAL Symposium

The 7 th International Association for Lichenology Symposium 2012
(2A-2-O5) Submission ID: IAL0198-00001
PHYLOGENY OF THE GENUS VULPICIDA AND DELIMITATION OF THE SPECIES
Saag L. 1 , Mark K. 2 , Saag A. 2 , Thell A. 3 , Randlane T. 2
1 Estonian Biocentre, Tartu, Estonia
2 Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia
3 The Biological Museums, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
The morphological group of cetrarioid lichens (Parmeliaceae) with erect foliose/subfruticose thallus,
marginal apothecia and pycnidia, and production of the Cetraria-type lichenan contains nearly 150 species in
over 20 genera, of which c. 90 species and 15 genera form a monophyletic clade, the so-called ‘cetrarioid core’.
Many genera in the cetrarioid core group are narrowly defined relative to other genera in the Parmeliaceae and
so the genus delimitations of cetrarioid lichens is still in focus. The genus Vulpicida, belonging to the cetrarioid
core, consists of six species of lichenized fungi: V. canadensis, V. juniperinus, V. pinastri, V. tubulosus, V. tilesii
and V. viridis. The genus is distributed in the temperate and arctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere and its
species are characterized by a unique set of secondary metabolites, pinastric and vulpinic acids, that are products
of the shikimic acid pathway and cause an intense yellow color of the medulla. The morphological recognition
of the genus is easy due to this impressive character, but the monophyly of the genus has not been shown
with confidence and the evolutionary relationships between the species have remained unclear. The delimitation
of, and the relationships between, all six Vulpicida species using nuclear ITS and Mcm7, and mitochondrial
SSU DNA sequences have been analysed. Over 100 Vulpicida specimens, 10–30 samples of each taxon,
were analysed together with species from the cetrarioid core group. Gene trees from Bayesian and parsimony
analyses are presented, as well as the coalescent-based Bayesian species trees. Morphologically similar and
not easily separable V. juniperinus and V. tubulosus are divided into two clearly distinguished groups in the gene
trees. However, these species are mixed in both clades, appearing polyphyletic. In contrast, they form one intermixed
clade in the species tree, supporting their synonymization. Vulpicida pinastri appears monophyletic, while
V. tilesii sequences also group with V. juniperinus and V. tubulosus. Two further species, V. canadensis and V.
viridis, with limited North American distributions and a different shape of the pycnoconidia (citriform instead of
sublageniform) appear outside the clade of the other four taxa in the multilocus trees.
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2A-2-O