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Abstract
The Teloschistaceae is a widespread family with considerable morphological and ecological
heterogeneity across genera and species groups. In order to provide a comprehensive
molecular phylogeny for this family, phylogenetic analyses were carried out on sequences
from the nuclear ribosomal ITS region obtained from 114 individuals that represent
virtually all main lineages of Teloschistaceae. Our study confirmed the polyphyly
of Caloplaca, Fulgensia and Xanthoria, and revealed that Teloschistes is probably
non-monophyletic. We also confirm here that species traditionally included in Caloplaca
subgenus Gasparrinia do not form a monophyletic entity. Caloplaca aurantia, C. carphinea
and C. saxicola s. str. groups were recovered as monophyletic. The subgenera Caloplaca
and Pyrenodesmia were also polyphyletic. In the subgenus Caloplaca, the traditionally
recognized C. cerina group was recovered as monophyletic. Because this study is based
solely on ITS, to maximize taxon sampling, the inclusion of phylogenetic signal from
ambiguously aligned regions in MP (recoded INAASE and arc characters) resulted in
the most highly supported phylogenetic reconstruction, compared with Bayesian inference
restricted to alignable sites.