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(American Journal of Botany. 2008;95:568-576.)
doi: 10.3732/ajb.2007024
© 2008 Botanical Society of America, Inc.
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Population Biology

Local genetic structure in a North American epiphytic lichen, Ramalina menziesii (Ramalinaceae)1

Silke Werth2,4 and Victoria L. Sork2,3

2 Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California Los Angeles, Box 951606, Los Angeles, California 90095-1606 USA 3 Institute of the Environment, University of California Los Angeles

ABSTRACT

Epiphytic lichens possess unique life history traits that can have conflicting effects on genetic structure: symbiotic mutualism between a fungus with its algal or cyanobacterial photobiont, association with a host plant, and ability to reproduce sexually and asexually. Our study species, Ramalina menziesii, has small ascospores that can facilitate long-distance gene movement, and it is capable of clonal reproduction. The goals of this study are to test whether different haplotypes were differentially distributed across host plant species, to look for evidence of asexual vs. sexual reproduction, and to assess the local genetic structure of the population. We sampled individuals from multiple trees of three oak species in four lichen subpopulations within a savanna ecosystem. Using DNA sequence data from four fungal nuclear loci, we found no tendency for host specialization. Alleles were randomly distributed across subpopulations. The frequency of multilocus genotypes was consistent with a randomly mating population. Sexual reproduction involving relichenization appeared to be the predominant mode of reproduction of R. menziesii at this study site. We found no significant local genetic structure suggesting widespread gene flow at the local scale. The genetic structure of this lichen is comparable to that of widely distributed epiphytic plants.

Key Words: AMOVA • epiphyte • fungus • genetic structure • lichenized ascomycete • mutualism • Quercus • Ramalina menziesii • Ramalinaceae • southern California

Received for publication 25 January 2007. Accepted for publication 14 January 2008.

FOOTNOTES

1 The authors thank D. Grivet and A. R. Plüss for field assistance and valuable discussions; E. Gonzales, C. Dutech, S. Banke, and G. Segelbacher for feedback on the manuscript; R. J. Dyer, P. E. Smouse, and R. D. Westfall for statistical advice; and D. G. Scofield for writing the R-code for the simulation test to discriminate asexual from sexual propagation. Research was supported by the following sources: a National Geographic Award to V.L.S. and S.W., a postdoctoral fellowship from the Swiss National Foundation (PBBEA-111207) to S.W., and a UCLA Senate research award, UCLA Life Science funds, and a National Science Foundation award (DEB-0089445) to V.L.S. The authors acknowledge the University of California Natural Reserve System Sedgwick Reserve administered by UC Santa Barbara and thank M. Williams, R. Skillin, and B. Huebel for logistical support.

4 Author for correspondence (e-mail address: silke.werth{at}wsl.ch); current address: Research Unit Biodiversity and Conservation Biology, WSL Swiss Federal Research Institute, Zürcherstrasse 111, CH-8903 Birmensdorf, Switzerland


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