Bacterial Communities Associated with the Lichen Symbiosis

Lichens are commonly described as a mutualistic symbiosis between fungi and "algae" (Chlorophyta or Cyanobacteria); however, they also have internal bacterial communities. Recent research suggests that lichen-associated microbes are an integral component of lichen thalli and that the class...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Applied and Environmental Microbiology Vol. 77; no. 4; pp. 1309 - 1314
Main Authors:	Bates, Scott T, Cropsey, Garrett W.G, Caporaso, J. Gregory, Knight, Rob, Fierer, Noah
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Washington, DC American Society for Microbiology 01-02-2011 American Society for Microbiology (ASM)
Subjects:	Algae Alphaproteobacteria - classification Alphaproteobacteria - genetics Alphaproteobacteria - isolation & purification Archaea - isolation & purification Azospirillum Bacteria Bacterial Typing Techniques Base Sequence Biological and medical sciences Bradyrhizobium DNA Barcoding, Taxonomic Frankia Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology Lichens Lichens - microbiology Lichens - physiology Microbial Consortia Microbial Ecology Microbiology Phylogenetics Phylogeny Polymerase Chain Reaction RNA, Ribosomal, 16S Sequence Analysis, DNA Sequence Analysis, RNA Symbiosis Symbiosis Bacteria Lichen Microbial community
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Summary:	Lichens are commonly described as a mutualistic symbiosis between fungi and "algae" (Chlorophyta or Cyanobacteria); however, they also have internal bacterial communities. Recent research suggests that lichen-associated microbes are an integral component of lichen thalli and that the classical view of this symbiotic relationship should be expanded to include bacteria. However, we still have a limited understanding of the phylogenetic structure of these communities and their variability across lichen species. To address these knowledge gaps, we used bar-coded pyrosequencing to survey the bacterial communities associated with lichens. Bacterial sequences obtained from four lichen species at multiple locations on rock outcrops suggested that each lichen species harbored a distinct community and that all communities were dominated by ALPHAPROTEOBACTERIA: Across all samples, we recovered numerous bacterial phylotypes that were closely related to sequences isolated from lichens in prior investigations, including those from a lichen-associated Rhizobiales lineage (LAR1; putative N₂ fixers). LAR1-related phylotypes were relatively abundant and were found in all four lichen species, and many sequences closely related to other known N₂ fixers (e.g., Azospirillum, Bradyrhizobium, and Frankia) were recovered. Our findings confirm the presence of highly structured bacterial communities within lichens and provide additional evidence that these bacteria may serve distinct functional roles within lichen symbioses.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 ObjectType-Article-2 ObjectType-Feature-1
ISSN:	0099-2240 1098-5336 1098-6596
DOI:	10.1128/AEM.02257-10