Veas-Mattheos Karla, Almendras Katerin, Pezoa Matías, Muster Cecilia, Orlando Julieta
Laboratory of Microbial Ecology, Department of Ecological Sciences, Faculty of Sciences, Universidad de Chile, Santiago 7800003, Chile.
Millennium Institute Biodiversity of Antarctic and Subantarctic Ecosystems (BASE), Santiago 7800003, Chile.
J Fungi (Basel). 2023 Mar 18;9(3):372. doi: 10.3390/jof9030372.
lichens can colonize extreme habitats, such as high-elevation ecosystems, but their biodiversity is still largely unknown in these environments, especially in the southern hemi- sphere. We assessed the genetic diversity of mycobionts and cyanobionts of 60 lichens collected in three high Andean steppes of southern Chile using LSU, , COR3 and ITS loci for mycobionts, and SSU and loci for cyanobionts. We obtained 240 sequences for the different mycobiont markers and 118 for the cyanobiont markers, including the first report of sequences of through modifying a previously designed primer. Phylogenetic analyses, ITS scrutiny and variability of haplotypes were used to compare the sequences with those previously reported. We found seven mycobiont species and eleven cyanobiont haplotypes, including considerable novel symbionts. This was reflected by ~30% of mycobionts and ~20% of cyanobionts haplotypes that yielded less than 99% BLASTn sequence identity, 15 new sequences of the ITS1-HR, and a putative new species associated with 3 haplotypes not previously reported. Our results suggest that high Andean steppe ecosystems are habitats of unknown or little-explored lichen species and thus valuable environments to enhance our understanding of global biodiversity.
地衣能够在极端生境中定殖，比如高海拔生态系统，但在这些环境中，尤其是在南半球，它们的生物多样性仍很大程度上不为人知。我们利用大型亚基（LSU）、COR3和内转录间隔区（ITS）基因座来分析智利南部三个安第斯高山草原采集的60种地衣的真菌共生体，并用小亚基（SSU）基因座来分析蓝细菌共生体，从而评估了它们的遗传多样性。我们获得了不同真菌共生体标记的240个序列以及蓝细菌共生体标记的118个序列，其中包括通过修改先前设计的引物首次报道的序列。系统发育分析、ITS序列审查和单倍型变异性被用于将这些序列与先前报道的序列进行比较。我们发现了7种真菌共生体物种和11种蓝细菌共生体单倍型，包括相当数量的新共生体。这体现在约30%的真菌共生体和约20%的蓝细菌共生体单倍型的BLASTn序列同一性低于99%，ITS1-HR的15个新序列，以及一个与3种先前未报道的单倍型相关的假定新物种。我们的结果表明，安第斯高山草原生态系统是未知或很少被探索的地衣物种的栖息地，因此是增进我们对全球生物多样性理解的宝贵环境。
