Metabarcoding of Antarctic Lichens from Areas with Different Deglaciation Times Reveals a High Diversity of Lichen-Associated Communities.

ABSTRACT: Lichens have developed numerous adaptations to optimise their survival under harsh abiotic stress, colonise different substrates, and reach substantial population sizes and high coverage in ice-free Antarctic areas, benefiting from a symbiotic lifestyle. As lichen thalli represent consortia with an unknown number of participants, it is important to know about the accessory organisms and their relationships with various environmental conditions. To this end, we analysed lichen-associated communities from Himantormia lugubris, Placopsis antarctica, P. contortuplicata, and Ramalina terebrata, collected from soils with differing deglaciation times, using a metabarcoding approach. In general, many more Ascomycete taxa are associated with the investigated lichens comp

SUBMITTER: Beck A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10218603 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature