Heterocyphelium leucampyx (Arthoniales, Ascomycota): another orphaned mazaediate lichen finds its way home

What is it about?

Heterocyphelium is a mazaediate genus containing a single species, H.leucampyx. For the past three decades, Heterocyphelium was considered an orphaned genus (incertae sedis) within the Ascomycota, since morphology alone could not resolve its systematic position. In this study, we added molecular data with the aim of resolving this uncertainty. Bayesian and maximum likelihood analyses of newly generated sequence data from the mitochondrial ribosomal RNA small subunit (mtSSU) and the RNA polymerase II second largest subunit gene (RPB2) provide clear evidence that Heterocyphelium leucampyx is nested within the order Arthoniales, in the family Lecanographaceae, sister to the genus Alyxoria.

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