Evidence for a core set of microbial lichen symbionts from a global survey of metagenomes

• DOI: 10.1101/2023.02.02.524463
• Publication Date: 2023-02-03T04:15:18Z
• Authors: Gulnara Tagirdzha...; Paul Saary; Ellen S. Cameron; Arkadiy I. Garber; David Díaz Escandón; Spencer Goyette; Veera Tuovinen No...; Alfredo Passo; Helmut Mayrhofer; Håkon Holien; Tor Tønsberg; Lisa Y. Stein; Robert D. Finn; Toby Spribille
• Keywords: Anoxygenic photosynthesis

Abstract Lichens are the archetypal symbiosis and one for which term was coined. Although application of shotgun sequencing techniques has shown that many lichen symbioses can harbour more symbionts than canonically recognized fungus photobiont, no global census organismal composition been undertaken. Here, we analyze genome content 437 metagenomes from six continents, show four bacterial lineages occur in majority symbioses, at a frequency on par with algal photobionts. A single genus, Lichenihabitans , occurs nearly one-third all lichens sampled. Genome annotations most common suggest they aerobic anoxygenic photoheterotrophs produce essential vitamins, but do not fix nitrogen. We also detected secondary basidiomycete about two-thirds analyzed metagenomes. Our survey suggests core set to seven microbial involved forming maintaining symbioses.