Travelers in a suitcase. Genomic perspectives from photobionts to understand lichens adaptation to environment.

Lichens the symbiotic organisms formed by fungi, photobionts and bacteria are key organisms for arctic ecosystems, with significant roles in biogeochemical cycles and trophic webs.

Yet, despite lichens importance, and the threats they face through the raising temperatures, there is a huge knowledge gap when it comes to their biology. One important gap concerns the photobionts, which play major roles in lichens adaptation to environments.

Here, I will investigate the within-lichen diversity, phylogenetic relationships, genomic features, distribution ranges, and dispersal mechanisms of the most common lichen photobionts: the green algal species from Trebouxia genus.

In the first year I will generate high quality genome assemblies for 14 Trebouxia lineages spanning over the diversity of the entire genus.

In the second and third year I will describe the phylogenetic relationships, the genomic features, the distribution ranges and fungal host preferences of the investigated Trebouxia lineages.

In the last year I will investigate at the cellular level the allocation of different photobiont genotypes within the lichen thalli and study their transmission mechanism.

I will employ a combination of state-of-the-art genomics and microscopy techniques and combine analytical methods from phylogenomics, phylogeography and comparative genomics.

This study will provide a much-needed base for future lichen research from a taxonomic framework to high-quality photobiont genomes.