Corresponding author: Thorsten Lumbsch (
Academic editor: P. Divakar
The phylogenetic position of the Tasmanian endemic genus
The lichen flora of Tasmania has a remarkable number of unique species, as well as several genera that are unknown or very rarely found in other regions. Examples include the genera
Lichen taxa unique to Tasmania include the genus
Thick-walled asci having a hemiamyloid wall and non-amyloid tholus, anastomosing paraphysoids and muriform ascospores are all characters reminiscent of
The study is based on fresh material collected by GK and deposited in the Tasmanian Herbarium (HO) and the Field Museum of Natural History (F), and on DNA sequences downloaded from Genbank. Sequences of
Sequences obtained from Genbank for the study. Family or generic group as in figure 1, largely following (
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We assembled partial sequences using Geneious Pro 5.4.3 (
Eight new sequences were generated for this study and aligned with sequences downloaded from Genbank (
Phylogenetic placement of
The backbone of the
Although the molecular data support the placement of
Diagnostic features of families with perithecioid ascomata in
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Proper exciple | rudimentary | Well developed, consisting of periplectenchymatous cells | Well developed, consisting of periplectenchymatous to isodiametric cells | Well developed, consisting of periplectenchymatous cells |
Hamathecium | Richly branched, anastomosing paraphysoids, no periphyses | Simple to sparsely branched Paraphyses, no periphyses | Richly branched, anastomosing paraphysoids, no periphyses | Richly branched, anastomosing paraphysoids, periphyses present |
Asci | Broadly obovate | cylindrical | cylindrical | cylindrical |
Tholus | Well-developed | Poorly developed | Well-developed | Poorly developed |
Ascus amyloidity | Outer wall hemiamyloid, tholus non-amyloid | Non-amyloid | Outer and wall and tholus amyloid | Non-amyloid |
Ocular chamber | - | - | + | +/- |
Ascospores | Hyaline, non-halonate, thick-walled, muriform | Hyaline, halonate, thin- to thick-walled, transversely septate to muriform | Hyaline, halonate, thick-walled muriform | Hyaline to brownish, halonate, thin-walled, muriform |
Chemistry | Dibenzofuranes, triphenyl | Nil or pigments | nil | nil |
Given the dissimilarity in morphological characters and the lack of close relatives in the phylogenetic tree, we propose a new family
Thallus crustose, photobiont a coccoid green alga. Ascomata perithecioid, immersed in the thallus, proper exciple rudimentary, hamathecium consisting of richly branched, anastomosing paraphysoids, inspersed with oil droplets, containing hymenial algae, periphyses absent. Asci broadly obovate, with outer wall hemiamyloid and with a well-developed, non-amyloid tholus; ocular chamber lacking. Ascospores hyaline, non-halonate, eumuriform. Conidiomata immersed in the thallus, forming baciliform to bone-shaped conidia.
This study was supported by the NSF grant “ATM – Assembling a taxonomic monograph: The lichen family Graphidaceae” (DEB-1025861). The laboratory work was done at the Pritzker Laboratory for Molecular Systematics at the Field Museum. For companionship in the field in quest of fresh material for analysis, GK thanks Brigitte de Villiers.