Phylogenetic generic classification of parmelioid lichens (Parmeliaceae, Ascomycota) based on molecular, morphological and chemical evidence

WOS: 000285566000008
Parmelioid lichens are a diverse and ubiquitous group of foliose lichens. Generic delimitation in parmelioid lichens has been in a state of flux since the late 1960s with the segregation of the large, heterogeneous genus Parmelia into numerous smaller genera. Recent molecular phylogenetic studies have demonstrated that some of these new genera were monophyletic, some were not, and others, previously believed to be unrelated, fell within single monophyletic groups, indicating the need for a revision of the generic delimitations. This study aims to give an overview of current knowledge of the major clades of all parmelioid lichens. For this, we assembled a dataset of 762 specimens, including 31 of 33 currently accepted parmelioid genera (and 63 of 84 accepted genera of Parmeliaceae). We performed maximum likelihood and Bayesian analyses of combined datasets including two, three and four loci. Based on these phylogenies and the correlation of morphological and chemical characters that characterize monophyletic groups, we accept 27 genera within nine main clades. We re-circumscribe several genera and reduce Parmelaria to synonymy with Parmotrema. Emodomelanelia Divakar & A. Crespo is described as a new genus (type: E. masonii). Nipponoparmelia (Kurok.) K.H. Moon, Y. Ohmura & Kashiw. ex A. Crespo & al. is elevated to generic rank and 15 new combinations are proposed (in the genera Flavoparmelia, Parmotrema, Myelochroa, Melanelixia and Nipponoparmelia). A short discussion of the accepted genera is provided and remaining challenges and areas requiring additional taxon sampling are identified.
Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion [CGL2008-01125-E/BOS, CGL2007-64652/BOS]; Ramon y Cajal [RYC02007-01576]; Field Museum; Swedish Research Council [VR 629-2001-5756, VR 621-2003-303, VR 621-2006-3760]
We wish to thank Allison Knight, Gary Perlmutter, Ken Sweat, James Lendemer and Gennadii Urbanavichius for providing us with fresh material for our studies. We thank John Pormann and Sean Dilda from the Duke Shared Cluster Resource and Michael Nuhn from the Nano+Bio Center for their support with installing and running the necessary software. This study has been supported financially by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion (CGL2008-01125-E/BOS, CGL2007-64652/BOS), and Ramon y Cajal grant (RYC02007-01576) to PKD, a start up fund of The Field Museum to Thorsten Lumbsch, the Swedish Research Council grants VR 629-2001-5756, VR 621-2003-303 and VR 621-2006-3760 to Mats Wedin. We thank the Galapagos National Park for permission to analyze their material. This is publication no. 2001 of the Charles Darwin Research Station.