Lichens have an important place in biology. . . . they’re composite organisms, consisting of fungi that live in partnership with microscopic algae. . . .
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. . .[B]iologists have tried in vain to grow lichens in laboratories. Whenever they artificially united the fungus and the alga, the two partners would never fully recreate their natural structures. It was as if something was missing—and [Toby] Spribille might have discovered it.
He has shown that largest and most species-rich group of lichens are not alliances between two organisms. . . . Instead, they’re alliances between three. All this time, a second type of fungus has been hiding in plain view.
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Lichenologists all thought that the fungi in the partnership belonged to a group called the ascomycetes. . . .[But] a lot of the genes that were activated in the lichens belonged to a fungus from an entirely different group—the basidiomycetes. . . .
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. . . .And in almost all the macro lichens. . . he found the genes of basidiomycete fungi.
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“The findings overthrow the two-organism paradigm,” says Sarah Watkinson from the University of Oxford. “Textbook definitions of lichens may have to be revised.”
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion and analysis. Read full, original post: How a Guy From a Montana Trailer Park Overturned 150 Years of Biology
