Kaasalainen Ulla, Kirika Paul M, Mollel Neduvoto P, Hemp Andreas, Rikkinen Jouko
Finnish Museum of Natural History, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 7, 00014 Helsinki, Finland.
Department of Geobiology, University of Göttingen, Goldschmidtstraße 3, 37077 Göttingen, Germany.
J Fungi (Basel). 2023 Feb 12;9(2):246. doi: 10.3390/jof9020246.
The lichen flora of Africa is still poorly known. In many parts of the tropics, recent studies utilizing DNA methods have revealed extraordinary diversity among various groups of lichenized fungi, including the genus . In this study, East African species and their ecology are reviewed using the genetic barcoding marker nuITS and morphological characters. The studied regions represent montane areas in Kenya and Tanzania, including the Taita Hills and Mt. Kilimanjaro, which belong to the Eastern Afromontane biodiversity hotspot. Altogether 14 species are confirmed from the study region, including the previously reported , , , and . , , , , and are reported as new to Kenya and/or Tanzania. , , , , and , are described as new to science. The abundance of new diversity detected and the number of taxa represented by only few specimens show that more comprehensive sampling of the region may be needed to reveal the true diversity of in East Africa. More generally, our results highlight the need for further taxonomic studies of lichenized fungi in the region.
非洲的地衣植物区系仍然鲜为人知。在热带地区的许多地方，最近利用DNA方法进行的研究揭示了各类地衣化真菌，包括该属真菌之间的非凡多样性。在本研究中，使用遗传条形码标记nuITS和形态特征对东非的物种及其生态学进行了综述。所研究的区域代表肯尼亚和坦桑尼亚的山区，包括属于东非山地生物多样性热点地区的泰塔山和乞力马扎罗山。研究区域共确认了14种地衣物种，包括先前报道的、、、和。、、、和被报告为肯尼亚和/或坦桑尼亚新发现的物种。、、、和被描述为科学上新发现的物种。检测到的新多样性丰富，且仅由少数标本代表的分类单元数量表明，可能需要对该地区进行更全面的采样，以揭示东非地衣的真正多样性。更普遍地说，我们的结果强调了对该地区地衣化真菌进行进一步分类研究的必要性。
