title: Multi-gene phylogeny of the genus Lobaria: Evidence of species-pair and allopatric cryptic speciation in East Asia.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Accurate species delimitation has critical implications for ecological and conservation studies. The lichen genus Lobaria is widely distributed in old-growth forests. Particularly in East Asia, this genus includes many rare and poorly known taxa that are circumscribed as morpho- or chemospecies, as well as species-pairs.
  
  
  METHODS
  To critically examine the relationships between species identified via morphological and chemical criteria, phylogenetic species recognition (PSR) was applied to the genus Lobaria. Morphological and chemical patterns of 87 individuals were examined and three independent nuclear loci were sequenced. The East Asian L. meridionalis-group was additionally studied using split decomposition and haplotype network analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The genus Lobaria and most of its species were strongly supported statistically. Split decomposition and haplotype networks suggest complex evolutionary histories of species within the East Asian L. meridionalis-group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Phylogenetic analyses confirmed the monophyly of the genus Lobaria, including L. anomala. Within Lobaria, three major clades were found. These clades associate with different photobionts and comprise 18 known species and 5 undescribed species. Several chemical compounds were found to be neither stable nor invariant characters. Some taxa of the L. meridionalis-group appear to be monophyletic but remain as allopatric cryptic species. In three clades, this study found evidence for diversification processes between isidiate and nonisidiate specimens (species-pair). These findings are discussed in the context of evolutionary hypotheses for speciation processes.
authors.affiliation: Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Zuercherstrasse 111, 8903 Birmensdorf, Switzerland carolina.cornejo@wsl.ch.
authors.forename: Carolina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cornejo
authors.affiliation: Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Zuercherstrasse 111, 8903 Birmensdorf, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Scheidegger
mesh_terms: D001203:Ascomycota / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics*; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D005202:Asia, Eastern; D005656:Fungal Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D049810:Genetic Speciation; D008011:Lichens / Q000235:genetics*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D005656:Fungal Proteins
keywords: Ascomycota; East Asia; Lobaria; Lobariaceae; phylogeny; species concepts