Cryptic species and species pairs in lichens: A discussion on the relationship between molecular phylogenies and morphological characters

By Ana Crespo, S. Pérez‐Ortega. 2009

137 citations recorded by the source corpus.

As with most disciplines in biology, molecular genetics has revolutionized our understanding of lichenized fungi. Nowhere has this been more true than in systematics, especially in the delimitation of species. In many cases, molecular research has verified long-standing hypotheses, but in others, results appear to conflict with existing morphological species concepts. This work reports on recent progress regarding two main issues: (i) cryptic species, i.e., two or more independent lineages exhibiting similar morphology; and (ii) species pairs, two species with similar morphology but exhibiting different reproductive modes. Both concepts have in common a lack of correlation between phylogenetic and morphological data, at least for characters normally used in lichen systematics. We review the available literature on cryptic species and species pairs, focusing especially on the family Parmeliaceae (Lecanoromycetes, Ascomycota). Molecular data have repeatedly demonstrated the existence of cryptic species in lichenized fungi, although taxonomists have often been slow to recognize the resulting taxa. However, careful observation of fine-scale morphological, ecological and/or geographical features tends to provide support for the recognition of these species. In the case of species pairs, by contrast, few if any of the pairs studied to date have been confirmed to consist of independent lineages. Differences in reproductive mode alone appear not to be a sufficient reason to recognise new species.

Subfields: Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Plant Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/24c502f7f353e4092ad51871e4d89111cf1fa631

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In Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics

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Citations in the corpus

15 The Symbiotic Phenotype of Lichen-Forming Ascomycetes and Their Endo- and Epibionts (2012, background): “morphologically very similar lineages with different phylogenies were detected in many taxa (Kroken and Taylor 2001; Crespo et al. 2007, 2010; Crespo and Pérez-Ortega 2009; Crespo and Lumbsch 2010; Lumbsch and Leavitt 2011).”
Phylogeny of the Lobariaceae (lichenized Ascomycota: Peltigerales), with a reappraisal of the genus Lobariella (2013, background): “…found in other groups of related and unrelated lichens, such as the Parmeliaceae (Crespo et al. 2002; Divakar et al. 2005; Argüello et al. 2007; Crespo & Pérez-Ortega 2009; Crespo & Lumbsch 2010), and demonstrate that the concept of variation applied to lichenized fungi has to be…”
Goodbye morphology? A paradigm shift in the delimitation of species in lichenized fungi (2011, background): “However, this phenomenon appears to be largely restricted to sorediate/fertile species pairs, while isidiate species have generally been confirmed as forming distinct lineages in phylogenetic studies (Crespo and Perez-Ortega 2009).”
Species in lichen-forming fungi: balancing between conceptual and practical considerations, and between phenotype and phylogenomics (2021, background): “In lichen fungi, previously unrecognized species-level clades with corresponding subtle, or overlooked, phenotypic characters have been commonly observed using this approach (e.g., Crespo and Pérez-Ortega 2009; Pino-Bodas et al.”