Cited Reference: Spribille, Toby, et al. “Basidiomycete Yeasts in the Cortex of

Question

Cited Reference: Spribille, Toby, et al. “Basidiomycete Yeasts in the Cortex of Ascomycete Macrolichens.”Science, American Association for the Advancement of Science, 21 July 2016, http://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2016/07/20/science.aaf8287

Please explain in detail in own words. Try to not to just copy answers from the article, so I can understand the article. Thank you

a Why did the authors begin with metatranscriptomics approach? What had other researchers tried to do, but did not succeed in finding?

b What was the result the metatranscriptomics approach? How did the authors uncover an unsuspected a third symbiont? What was the main lichen phenotype that correlated with the increased presence of the 3rd symbiont?

Explanation / Answer

a. Transcriptomics approach is used to characterize symbiont gene activity in vitro. Metatrancriptomics approach works well with natural thalli and authors took advantage of this technology to better understand the factors involved in forming two macrolichen symbioses.

Other researchers used phylogenetic analyses which failed to detect any fixed sequence differences between the two species in wither mycobiont or the photobiont.

b. The metatranscriptomics approach confirms previous conclusions that two lichen species are nomenclatural synonyms. Also data from this analyses showed previosuly unrecognized basidiomycete was present in thalli of both spcies but was more abundant whenever vulpinic acid was present in large amounts. This analysis uncovered basidiomycete as sister to cystobasidium minutum with high support.

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