Lichens play crucial roles in the ecosystems, contributing to soil formation and nutrient cycling, and being used in biomonitoring efforts to assess the sustainability of ecosystems including air quality. Previous studies on heavy metal accumulation in lichens have mostly relied on manipulated environments, such as transplanted lichens, leaving us with a dearth of research on how lichens physiologically respond to heavy metal exposure in their natural habitats. To fill this knowledge gap, we investigated lichens from two of South Korea’s geo graphically distant regions, Gangwon Province and Jeju Island, and examined whether differ ence in ambient heavy metal concentrations could be detected through physiological variables, including chlorophyll damage, lipid oxidation, and protein content. The physio logical variables of lichens in response to heavy metals differed according to the collection area: Arsenic exerted a significant impact on chlorophyll degradation and protein content. The degree of fatty acid oxidation in lichens was associated with increased Cu concentra tions. Our research highlights the value of lichens as a bioindicator, as we found that even small variations in ambient heavy metal concentrations can be detected in natural lichens. Furthermore, our study sheds light on which physiology variables that can be used as indi cators of specific heavy metals, underscoring the potential of lichens for future ecology studies.

Lichen is a symbiotic mutualism of mycobiont and photobiont that harbors diverse organisms including endolichenic fungi (ELF). Despite the taxonomic and ecological significance of ELF, no comparative investigation of an ELF community involving isolation of a pure culture and high-throughput sequencing has been conducted. Thus, we analyzed the ELF community in Parmotrema tinctorum by culture and metabarcoding. Alpha diversity of the ELF community was notably greater in metabarcoding than in culture-based analysis. Taxonomic proportions of the ELF community estimated by metabarcoding and by culture analyses showed remarkable differences: Sordariomycetes was the most dominant fungal class in culture-based analysis, while Dothideomycetes was the most abundant in metabarcoding analysis. Thirty-seven operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were commonly observed by cultureand metabarcoding-based analyses but relative abundances differed: most of common OTUs were underrepresented in metabarcoding. The ELF community differed in lichen segments and thalli in metabarcoding analysis. Dissimilarity of ELF community intra lichen thallus increased with thallus segment distance; inter-thallus ELF community dissimilarity was significantly greater than intra-thallus ELF community dissimilarity. Finally, we tested how many fungal sequence reads would be needed to ELF diversity with relationship assays between numbers of lichen segments and saturation patterns of OTU richness and sample coverage. At least 6000 sequence reads per lichen thallus were sufficient for prediction of overall ELF community diversity and 50,000 reads per thallus were enough to observe rare taxa of ELF.

Aspicilia humida Lee is described as a new lichen-forming fungus from a wetland forest, South Korea. The new species is distinguishable from Aspicilia aquatica (Fr.) Körb., the most similar species, by the absence of prothallus, black disk without green color in water, olivebrown epihymenium, shorter hymenium, hymenium I þ yellowish blue-green, wider paraphysial tips without a vivid pigment, smaller asci, smaller ascospores, and the presence of stictic acid. Molecular analyses employing internal transcribed spacer (ITS) and mitochondrial small subunit (mtSSU) sequences strongly support A. humida as a distinct species in the A. cinerea group. A surrogate key is provided to assist in the identification of all 28 aspicilioid species of Korea.

The new genus and species, Jejulea byssolomoides, is described from Jeju Island, Korea. This lichen is characterized by saxicolous, crustose, pale greenish-gray, partly finely filamentous, matt, smooth thallus, prominent convex brown to dark brown ascomata with a concolorous margin constricted at the dark brown base, 300–800 lm diameter, 200–250 lm high, without a distinct proper margin, adhering to the substratum ending in a minute byssoid white external part of cylindrical cells, fusiform 3–5 septate ascospores (17–23 × 4–5 μm). Phylogenetic analyses using ITS and mtSSU sequences place Jejulea in the Pilocarpaceae (Lecanorales). The new taxon is closely related to Byssoloma, a cosmopolitan group of foliicolous lichens, which is most diverse in the tropics. Like Byssoloma, Jejulea also forms a byssoid apothecial margin.

Two new species, Thelopsis ullungdoensis and Phylloblastia gyeongsangbukensis are described from Ullung-Do (Island), South Korea. The closest relatives from Europe and Korea are epiphytic Thelopsis flaveola which differs by their immersed or semi-immersed yellow ascomata, ascospores without halo and their habitat of smooth bark (mainly Fagus) in humid and cold climates. Thelopsis gangwondoensis differs by its bigger semi-immersed ascomata (600–700 µm in diam.), oblong halonate ascospores (8–12 × 6–8 µm) and its habitat of smooth bark of deciduous trees. P. gyeongsangbukensis differs from its relatives within the genus in having 5-septate ascospores (22–26 × 6–8 µm), semi-immersed, subglobose ascomata with a flattened top (250–400 µm) and a thin, matt, uneven gray-brown to gray-green continuous thallus without isidia.

Two new species, Thelopsis ullungdoensis and Phylloblastia gyeongsangbukensis are described from Ullung-Do (Island), South Korea. The closest relatives from Europe and Korea are epiphytic Thelopsis flaveola which differs by their immersed or semi-immersed yellow ascomata, ascospores without halo and their habitat of smooth bark (mainly Fagus) in humid and cold climates. Thelopsis gangwondoensis differs by its bigger semi-immersed ascomata (600–700 µm in diam.), oblong halonate ascospores (8–12 × 6–8 µm) and its habitat of smooth bark of deciduous trees. P. gyeongsangbukensis differs from its relatives within the genus in having 5-septate ascospores (22–26 × 6–8 µm), semi-immersed, subglobose ascomata with a flattened top (250–400 µm) and a thin, matt, uneven gray-brown to gray-green continuous thallus without isidia.

Candelariella is a widespread lineage of lichenized ascomycetes with ambiguous relationships among species that have not solved completely. In this study, several specimens belonging to Candelariella were collected from China and South Korea, and the internal transcribed spacer region was generated to confirm the system position of the newly collected specimens. Combined with a morphological examination and phylogenetic analysis, two new areolate species, Candelariella rubrisoli and C. subsquamulosa, are new to science. Detail descriptions of each new species are presented. In addition, C. canadensis is firstly reported from China mainland.
Ascomycota ; China ; Classification ; Far East ; Korea ; Lichens ; Phylogeny

Most of lichens are formed by Ascomycota, less than 1% are lichenized Basidiomycota. The flora investigation of lichenized Ascomycota of South Korea has been well studied in the past three decades; however, prior to this study, none of basidiolichens was discovered. During the recent excursion, an unexpected clavarioid basidiolichen, Sulzbacheromyces sinensis was collected. Morphology and ecology has been recorded in detail. DNA was extracted, and ITS, 18S, 28S nuclear rDNA were generated. In order to further confirm the systematic position of the Korean specimens, maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference analysis including all the species of the order Lepidostromatales were conducted based on the ITS. As a result, the phylogenetic tree of the order Lepidostromatales was reconstructed, which differed from the previous studies. The inferred phylogenetic tree showed that species of Sulzbacheromyces in three different continents (Asia, South Africa and South America) were separated into three clades with support. In this study, the species worldwide distribution map of Lepidostromatales was illustrated, and S. sinensis had a widest distribution range (paleotropical extend to the Sino-Japanese) than other species (paleotropical or neotropical). Prior to this study, the range of distribution, southernmost and northernmost points and the fruiting time of S. sinensis were recorded, and the genus Sulzbacheromyces was firstly reported from Korean peninsula and Philippines.
Ascomycota ; Asia ; Basidiomycota ; DNA ; DNA, Ribosomal ; Ecology ; Fruit ; Geography ; Korea ; Lichens ; Philippines ; Phylogeny ; South Africa ; Trees

Several buellioid specimens were collected from South Korea during field surveys and two new species are described based on morphology, chemistry, and molecular phylogeny. Buellia boseongensis sp. nov. is similar to B. polyspora but differs in having a UV + orange thallus and cryptolecanorine apothecia. Sculptolumina coreana sp. nov., resembles S. japonica, but differs in having a smooth entire continuous thallus, which reacts K–, a narrower excipulum, thicker epihymenium, narrower subhymenium, and in containing secondary metabolites other than flavo-obscurin and myeloconone. A key to the buellioid lichens reported from Korea is also presented.
Chemistry ; Korea ; Lichens ; Phylogeny

BACKGROUND: Osteoporosis is a geriatric disease with diminished bone density. The increase in the number of patients and medical expenses due to a global aging society are recognized as problems. Bone loss is the most common symptom of bone disease, not only osteoporosis but Paget's disease, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple myeloma, and other diseases. The main cause of this symptoms is excessive increase in the number and activity of osteoclasts. Osteoclasts are multinucleated giant cells that can resorb bone. They are differentiated and activation from monocytes/macrophages in the presence of macrophage colony-stimulating factor and receptor activator of nuclear factor-κB ligand (RANKL). METHODS: The effect of extract of Flavoparmelia sp. (EFV), a genus of lichenized fungi within the Parmeliaceae, on the differentiation of bone marrow-derived macrophages (BMMs) into osteoclasts was examined by phenotype assay and the cell cytotoxicity was evaluated by cell counting kit-8. The osteoclast differentiation-related genes and proteins were investigated by real-time polymerase chain reaction and immunoblotting. The functional activity of osteoclast in response to EFV treatment was evaluated by an Osteo Assay plate. RESULTS: In this study, we found that EFV, a genus of lichenized fungi within the Parmeliaceae, inhibited osteoclast formation. And we investigated its inhibitory mechanism. EFV reduced RANKL-mediated osteoclast formation and activation by inhibiting expression of nuclear factor of activated T cells 1, a key factor of osteoclastogenesis. CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, our results show that EFV is a promising candidate for health functional foods or therapeutic agents that can help treat bone diseases such as osteoporosis.
Aging ; Arthritis, Rheumatoid ; Bone Density ; Bone Diseases ; Cell Count ; Functional Food ; Fungi ; Giant Cells ; Humans ; Immunoblotting ; Lichens ; Macrophage Colony-Stimulating Factor ; Macrophages ; Multiple Myeloma ; NFATC Transcription Factors ; Osteoclasts ; Osteoporosis ; Parmeliaceae ; Phenotype ; Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction ; T-Lymphocytes