title: The obligately lichenicolous genus Lichenoconium represents a novel lineage in the Dothideomycetes.
abstract: Lichenicolous fungi are obligately lichen-associated organisms that have evolved many times throughout the Ascomycota and Basidiomycota. Approximately 20% of lichenicolous ascomycetes are recognized only from asexual (anamorphic) characteristics, so the phylogenetic position of many groups has never been resolved. Here we present the first molecular phylogeny of Lichenoconium, a genus of strictly asexual, obligately lichenicolous species with broad geographic distributions and diverse host ecologies. We obtained nuclear and mitochondrial rDNA sequences from fungal cultures isolated from four species in the genus, including a new species, Lichenoconium aeruginosum sp. nov., collected in France, Luxembourg and Netherlands. Our multilocus phylogeny supports the monophyly of fungi in the genus Lichenoconium, and places the genus in the Dothideomycetes, an ascomycete class made up mainly of saprobes and plant-associated endophytes and pathogens. There are only a few recognized groups of lichen-formers in the Dothideomycetes, but Lichenoconium is not supported as being closely related to any of these, nor to any other recognized order within the Dothideomycetes. Given that Lichenoconium is but one of over 100 genera of anamorphic lichenicolous fungi, most of which have never been studied phylogenetically, we suggest that asexual lichenicolous fungi may represent novel and evolutionarily significant phylogenetic groups in the Kingdom Fungi.
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Science and Policy, George Mason University, 4400 University Drive, Fairfax, VA 22030-4444, USA. jlawrey@gmu.edu
authors.forename: James D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Lawrey
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Diederich
authors.forename: Matthew P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Nelsen
authors.forename: Masoumeh
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sikaroodi
authors.forename: Patrick M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Gillevet
authors.forename: A Maarten
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Brand
authors.forename: Pieter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: van den Boom
mesh_terms: D001203:Ascomycota / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D004271:DNA, Fungal / Q000235:genetics; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal / Q000235:genetics; D008011:Lichens / Q000382:microbiology*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny
chemical_list: D004271:DNA, Fungal; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal