Lichens - Science topic

Hello,

I work at the fungarium of the University of Oslo. You can check our guidelines and recommendations for fungal collection and specimen preservation here: https://www.nhm.uio.no/english/collections/mycological/fungi/collection-guidelines.html

Hope it helps!

Dry ashing is a commonly used method to analyze the elemental composition of samples, including lichens, but it may not be suitable for detecting absorbed PM10 concentrations specifically. Dry ashing involves subjecting a sample to high temperatures to burn off organic matter and leave behind the inorganic residues, which can then be analyzed. While this method can provide information on the total elemental composition of lichens, it may not differentiate between the absorbed particulate matter (PM10) and naturally occurring elements in the lichens. To specifically measure absorbed PM10 concentrations in lichens, other methods such as gravimetric analysis, microscopic examination, or chemical extraction techniques that target specific pollutants may be more appropriate. It is essential to consider the specific goals of the analysis and consult relevant scientific literature or experts in the field for guidance on suitable techniques.

Maybe you can search with the keywords "lichen forest fire", some reference from me maybe will help you sir

thank you very much .

Thank you Dr Ricarda

Dear Masudjon, There is no such a key for the whole family Ramalinaceae worldwide. As for the other families, you may find some keys for single genera or just use generic keys in famous handbooks, e.g. The Lichens of Great Britain and Ireland. But fur sure, take into account your regional specifics.

ok thank you!!!

Thank you Steffen, Your work is very impressive.. i will go through these.

Dear Researcher, you can calculate the Index Atmospheric Purity (IAP) by using lichens on this formula.

The resultant can be classified into the following groups which are given below.

[1] Score is >10 means the area is clean and pollution free.

[2] Score is between 0-10 i.e., is pollution level is moderately clean.

[3] Score is -10 to 0 then the area is slightly polluted.

[4] Score is < -10 i.e. the area is highly polluted.

You can compare between different indice , IPA, IQA, Indice de shanon, lDv

And i also advise you to read this these of doctor Yannick AGNAN http://biogeochimie.fr › pdfPDF

le Yannick AGNAN Bioaccumulation et bioindication par les lichens de ...

Good luck

Certainly not , its just an indicator...the concentration of heavy metals is a function of sink capacity ..

Thank you, sir, I'm grateful for your help.

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/237164v1.full-text.

Some lichen relationships are obligate, while others are facultative.

Lichens are a source of a great variety of unique secondary metabolites with important biological activities, including antibiotic, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and anticancer, among others. A large body of research has demonstrated anticancer effects of lichens by inhibition of initiation, growth and invasion of several cancer cell types in vitro and in vivo.

Hi,

It is hardly ta say and it depends when the lichens were collected, sometimes the number can be very high.

Interesting topic

Following

I have now added more photos to this comment of the photobiont, ascii, paraphyses, and the ascospores, which are much clearer than I was able to attain before. The ascospores are 1-4 septate, and appear to either come in two types/maturities (one of which seems to have very distinct jigsaw-puzzle shaped septa, as shown in the photos), or the ascocarp I squashed may have had another species present. Average spore sizes of the two types (n=8 each) are 15.7 x 3.8 μm (jigsaw septa) and 17.9 x 4.4 μm (opaque spores) for the two types.

I still don't have access to Iodine to stain the ascus tips, but I am working on it!

Picture 1: It could be Peltigera polydactyla (Neck.) Hoffm.

It looks close to Cladonia cristatella.

Sounds like a good question for Jayne Belnap. Simply cover is commonly used for correlative field studies, but you may be looking for more precision. Maybe a general soil organic content method?

Hello, you can isolate total DNA from your samples and perform sequencing or better pyrosequencing to see total biodiversity of your samples.

Germination and seedling establishment in orchids: a ...

https://academic.oup.com/aob/article/116/3/391/169761

You need to remove the substrate with them. For species on soil or trees use a use a fixed-blade knife to remove them. Those of soil can be protected by adding a mixture of 1/2 water and 1/2 glue to to soil to keep it from breaking apart. On rock, a 3-4 pound hammer and a cold chisel can be used to chip the piece of rock off with the specimen. I cut larger pieces that do not chip well with a rock saw.

The filamentous algae you culuted seems to be Tribonema , which belongs to Xanthophyceae.

Your absorbance is too high. You need to dilute your sample even more. The absorbance is Abs = log (Transm) = log (Io/I). The linear absorbance range of most spectrometers is between 0.1 and 1.

At an absorbance of 2 you are at 1% Transmittance, which means that 99% of the total light is being absorbed by the sample. That is, normally, the maximum absorbance recommended for spectroscopic measurements. Above it your signal is probably saturated and not reliable. At an Abs of 4 you are at 0.01% T. That means that your spectrum is saturated.

I would recommend that you dilute your sample much more.

Dear read the protocol for the kit you are using.

Kindly see the following RG links and a PDF attachment.

Hello, see attached paper and link below may be useful for you.

Good luck!

I think so, it´s a good idea. But with native trees.

Hello,

Talking about bacteria, SEM will give you the shape of the bacteria (cocci, bacilli, vibrio, filamentous etc.) as well as their behavior (mono, diplo, tetra, staphylo, strepto etc.)

For further classification, you will need genomic analysis. The shapes and behaviors will help you for what genomes you should look for.

Dear Subir,

as i mentioned above, the lichens did not kill the tree directly but they were appeared extensively on plants expose to drought stress. does this play any role in their death in the end?

regards, Salem

Also, please find the template, but before using check the manual!

Also you can do molecular analyses after the staining and storage

Cynthia:

In lichenology, the monospecific collection is almost an anomaly - most collections support more than one species of lichen.

I rarely separate species collected together. If this is the way they grow in nature, then this is how they are best represented in the herbarium. In most cases, as you say, this is not possible anyway – especially with species growing on rock – and think of all that community information you’re throwing away. The only time I would even think about this is for species growing on twigs, where it is sometimes easy to cut the twig to produce collections where the different species dominate. In this case always keep the original collection number and label the segregates ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’, etc. The only other case where I would consider this is when the specimen is large and is likely to be damaged if left in one piece.

Traditionally, collections might have been separated like this because the specimen has to be filed under a single species and there was the possibility that the “associated species” would have been “lost” (how may reference sheets do you really want to use?) but with a digitized collection this is no longer an issue. It may be nice to have all your collections of a single species filed together, but it’s not necessary.

Hope this helps - Alan

Hi khem

Your pellet may be completely over dried. So many of them face a similar problem (sometimes I had a problem to dissolve the pellet) and sometimes heating the solution to almost boiling T may be useful for a short period of time.

But that may degrade your DNA.

Good luck

Yes. Yeast and Zygomycetes grow very well together. Zygomycetes (Rhozopus, Mucor et.c.) produces several enzymes that break down starches and other substrates that the yeast can then utilize. Zygomycetes can use the glycerol and possibly the ethanol that the yeast produces.

Also Penicillium and yeast grow well together.

This is the one that I use to look at insects at home: https://www.celestron.com/products/handheld-digital-microscope-pro

did you use a selective medium ?

logically, we have to separate the targeted mycobiont from its host (fungus tallus)...but, us for endophytic fungi, the host shoud be surface-sterilized..

Since the thallus is segmented, you must observe the emergence of mycobionte hyphae at the point of segmentation (with magnification tool) from the first days..or at least early....

Lichen is an associated organism: two very different beings, an alga and a fungus, live together in a qualified symbiotic association, producing a new body, or lichen thallus. Much of the lichen body is a tangle of fungal filaments called hyphae; these filaments clasp alga, sometimes in a mat, or sometimes wrapped as single cells. The fungus collects water and provides structure and protection for the alga, and may in certain species extract minerals for both organisms from the substrate. The alga possesses chloroplasts and can photosynthesize, thus providing carbohydrates for both itself and its fungal partner. Some 95% of lichens are formed by fungi in the Ascomycota. The fungi are paraphyletic, and have been placed in at least 12 orders. The remainder are formed by Holobasidiomycetes. Sexual structures formed by the fungi are similar to closely related non-lichenised fungi, indicating that lichenisation has evolved independently many times. Lichens are renowned for the extraordinary diversity of their secondary metabolites. All are formed by the fungal partner. Further, production of secondary metabolites by a basidiomycete partner is unknown, and thus these comments relate to the Ascomycota. Most secondary metabolites are formed as part of the Acetate-polymalonate biosynthetic pathway. Compounds formed from the Mevalonic acid pathway and the Shikimic acid pathway are also common. a lot depends upon the nutrient extracting ability of the lichen . The highest Fe content (55,000 ppm dry weight) was reported in Acarospora sinopica, much present as Fe2+ in the cortical crust , possibly present as sulphate, silicate and phosphate .

Kind of lichens also dictates the adaptatibility. Crustose lichens usually live tightly attached to their growing surfaces on rocks, trees, soils or buildings. Species of crustose lichens are the slowest growing . Possibly the Earth's oldest organisms, crustose yellow-green map lichens (Rhizocarpon geographicum) growing in the Arctic are 8,600 years old. Foliose lichens have leafy lobes that usually grow parallel to the growth surface. Fruticose lichens have a mature branching structure and resemble little bushes or trees, or they can hang down from tree branches. An example is reindeer lichen (Cladonia spp.). Foliose and fruticose lichens grow faster than crustose ones .

Please have a look at following link...

Adaptation of an Antarctic lichen to Martian niche conditions can occur within 34 days ( Planetary and Space ScienceVolume 98, August 2014, Pages 182-190 )overlay panelJean-Pierrede VeraaDirkSchulze-MakuchbAfshinKhanbAndreasLorekaAlexanderKonczaDiedrichMöhlmannaTilmanSpohnaShow morehttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.pss.2013.07.014

I couldn't attach photos,now see the pics

Hi Cynthia:

Foliose lichens are relatively straight forward as they can often be detached from the substrate and placed in a ‘bryophyte packet’ (obtainable from Herbarium Supply: http://herbariumsupply.com/product-category/mounting/bryophyte-packets/). For larger specimens I make my own packets from acid-free species folders. These packets can then either be mounted on standard herbarium sheets or stored vertically in trays that fit into herbarium cabinets (also available from Herbarium Supply: http://herbariumsupply.com/product/bin-boxes-391/).

The really problematic specimens are the dimorphic lichens (eg, Cladonia sp., Stereocaulon sp.). These can sometimes be flattened and stored as above or, if you want to retain their three-dimensional structure, placed in small boxes. Crustose species that are attached to their rock substrate can also be stored either in large packets or in boxes - although a better way with these is to use a rock saw to prepare a thin specimen.

Hope this helps - Alan

Yes I am also talking samples for SEM but not frozen and fractured fractured after samples dried in the oven at about 40-45 degree centigrade

thanks a lot Dear Barrett Brooks

Dear Frances,

Irrespective of solvent or sample,

Retention factor is the ratio of the distance traveled by the solute to the distance traveled by the solvent front.

Rf = distance travelled by solute/distance travelled by solvent

Best regards.

Generally the steam distillation is a good method to obtain the essential oils but the plant material is exposed to high temperature (about 100 °C) and this may cause some chemical changes in temperature-sensitive constituents. The extraction with solvents like hexane dors not have this kind of problem because they are eliminated at very low temperature when operating at reduced pressure. 

You should check if the steam distillation does not change the desired composition of oil in respect of the use you want to make with.

Denis,

Thanks but I need a living specimens because I want to start a culture :(

 I would oppose in the above mentioned deffinition of a lichenicolous fungus and suggest another one - lichenicolous fungi grow on lichens, i.e. they represent mostly parasites of the fungal tissue or algae in the lichen thallus (more or less destructive).

Lichenicolous fungi live exclusively on Lichens. They are host-specific parasites, but also as broad spectrum pathogens, saprotrophs or commensals.

Lichenized fungi is actually two organisms functioning as a single stable unit. It is a complex organism of the group Lichens, composed of a fungus in symbiotic union with an alga.

Thank you very much sir,

I am compulsory contact Dr. G.P.Sinha sir,

Dear Frances, there are several points to consider:

1. You need to identify the potential variables that could influence lichen distribution in mangroves. I can think of at least six: distance from shore, phorophyte species, height above ground, relative light level, bark pH, and bark structure.

2. You need to make a sampling design that includes enough samples to encompass the above variation of parameters. For instance, you could select three common phorophyte species that have two different bark structures, one shared between two of the three species. Then you identify five equidistant distances from the shoreline, e.g. each 10 m, and establish perpendicular transects. Along each transects, you run five equidistant repeats, also 10 m apart. This already results in 3 x 5 x 5 = 75 trees, which is a fairly good sample. The parameters light and bark pH are measured as additional variables for each sample; for light you make hemisphere photographs and analize them in Gap Analizer.

3. You need to decide how to sample each tree. Since height above ground will be a parameter, one approach would be to make horizontal circular transects at 50, 100, and 150 cm height with a cord, and sample/record all lichens that touch or cross the cord.

For the selection of the phorphytes, you also need to set a minimum diameter.

After sampling, most time will be spend identifying the lichen species. You will need a microscope and some basic tools to do chemistry on them.

Bryophyte (moss) genome obviously is the most reliable. But you can identify mosses using a key that details things such as:

Is the gametophyte colony dark green or greyish-white in appearance?

Is the mature spore capsule upright or nodding?

When dry, do the leaves twist around the stem or simply fold inwards to the stem?

Does the leaf have a nerve or not ?

Are the cells in the lower leaf corners markedly different from the other leaf cells?

How large are the spores?

Lichens are not really plants – they are a combination of fungi and algae and are classified based on the fungus and fungal features. In order to identify lichen to species level, lichenologists use common household chemicals and some not-so-common chemicals to test the color reaction of the unique compounds found in the structure of the lichen, as well as using a lichen key to distinguish between species.

Hello Huajie Liu

please check the resources

Hi, simple phenol-chloroform-extraction. Worked fine for fungal DNA isolation (lichen fungi) and is way cheaper than DNA-isolation kits.

Morphological characters, anatomical characters and chemistry are used for identification of Usnea species.

Morphological characters includes thallus habit, habitat, branching pattern, shape of branches, presence or absences of isidiomorphs, soralia, papillae, tubercules, pseudocyphellae or fibrils. Anatomical characters: arrangement and thickness of  cortex, medulla and core; pigmentation of inner cortex and medulla.

For identification of Usena genus read Ohmura et al. 2009, Ohmura 2001, Randlane et al. 2009, Clerc 1988, Halonen 2000.

DEar Dries

Though I have no working experience, with Lichen but I have seen it during my field trips that growth of the lichen under the high tension electric transportation beam is stunted.

With regards

Sunit Mitra

It is difficult to identify lichen species only by photographs. The genus of each photo is Peltula.

In that case Cladonia on picture 2 is definitely C. foliacea - C. convoluta complex. Fulgensia most probably is F. fulgida.

With best wishes,

Andrei.

Thomas H. Nash publication concerning lichens.

No_x mainly. The references in support are attached. I think these references will help you.

Depending  how rare these plants are you may also  consider having a collection of plants that represents the genetic diversity of the species  in safe secure environment  such as an in vitro collection in a lab or seed collection in a genebank. This will ensure survival of the species should any natural disasters, pest incursions, disease outbreaks occur. 

Thank you Dr Olekesii for your kind inputs.

it's also within my concern this species belongs to genus Chapsa...right now i'm doing the analysis...tq for the enlightenment mr Adam Flakus...

Hi Ioana

Arctic lichens as  Cetraria nivalis, Cladonia rangiferina, Alectoria nigricans, and Mansonhalea richardsonii con increase their biomass 10% yearly (Cooper and Wookey 2001; Peck 2000)

To Rudolf Ritt: Fuligo septica is a member of Myxogastridae, not fungi, not lichen, not plant, not animal. Myxogastridae and real amoebas (genus Amoeba) are belonging to Amoebozoa nowadays.

Hi Wayne, I'dbe very interested in this. I've been working on how the composition of forest floor vegetation (including lichens) can linked to long-term (centuries to millennia) cycliong of SOC. Using something of a trait-base would be interesting. I also have samples which I will use for CN(P) etc, btu if anything is of interest, let me know. cheers, rob

I think Funaria hygrometrica young plants. The setas ar too long for Entosthodon species.

Dear Tatiana,

I think it will be useful to address your question to Yuri Novozhilov, here on Researchgate. His group had some problems with DNA extraction from myxomycetes  but they managed to solve it at last. May be this link to their paper will be helpful too:

Best wishes,

Elena

Dear Chenna, As suggested by Subir consult G.P. Sinha or Dr. Upreti, NBRI.