Alphaproteobacterial communities in geographically distant populations of the lichen Cetraria aculeata

C. Printzen, F. Fernández-Mendoza, L. Muggia, Gabriele Berg, Martin Grube

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Lichen symbioses were recently shown to include diverse bacterial communities. Although the biogeography of lichen species is fairly well known, the patterns of their bacterial associates are relatively poorly understood. Here we analyse the composition of Alphaproteobacteria in Cetraria aculeata, a common lichen species that occurs at high latitudes and various habitats. Using clone libraries we show that most of the associated Alphaproteobacteria belong to Acetobacteraceae, which have also been found previously in other lichen species of acidic soils and rocks in alpine habitats. The majority of alphaproteobacterial sequences from C. aculeata are very similar to each other and form a single clade. Data from C. aculeata reveal that alphaproteobacterial communities of high latitudes are depauperate and more closely related to each other than to those of extrapolar habitats. This agrees with previous …
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)316-325
JournalFEMS Microbiology Ecology
Volume2012
Issue number82
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Nov 2012

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