Biology 3218F/G Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Saprotrophic Nutrition, Decomposer, Peanut Butter
20 Sep 2016
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Lichens are a mutualistic symbiosis between a fungus and some kind of photoautotroph. Photoautotroph is usually a green alga (eukarya), or sometimes members of cyanobacteria (diff domain: eubacteria) Cyanobacteria carry out ps and so within a lichen, they form symbioses with either cyanobacteria or green algae (or both); fungi takes up nutrients and water and keeps the photobiont happy. Lichenologists thought that lichens had to reproduce vegetatively so that a piece of the lichen would break off containing both the fungus and the photobiont and get carried to another place and that"s the only way that they reproduce. 20 000 species of lichens generally, and the vast majority are ascomycota. Here we see the 3 diff morphotypes of lichens. On the left there is a leafy looking lichen called foliose. On the top right: shrubby looking lichen (if hairy, shrubby, or branched and standing up) called fruticose. On the bottom right: if they form rock or crust on bark: crustose.
