New #preprint alert! What are the core symbionts of lichens? TLDR: we analyzed >400 lichen metagenomes from around the world and found that 4 bacterial groups are as frequent in lichens as the alga, one of the two main partners in the symbiosis. 🧵 1/11 https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.02.02.524463v1
Lichens are the archetypal symbiosis and the one for which the term was coined. Although application of shotgun sequencing techniques has shown that many lichen symbioses can harbour more symbionts than the canonically recognized fungus and photobion…
