Characterization of Microsatellite Loci in the Lichen Fungus <i>Lobaria pulmonaria</i> (Lobariaceae)

Abstract

Premise of the study: Microsatellite loci were developed for the threatened haploid lichen fungus Lobaria pulmonaria to increase the resolution to identify clonal individuals, and to study its population subdivision. Methods and Results: We developed 14 microsatellite markers from 454 DNA sequencing data of L. pulmonaria and tested for cross-amplification with L. immixta and L. macaronesica. The number of alleles per locus ranged from two to 23. Nei's unbiased gene diversity, averaged over loci, ranged from 0.434 to 0.517 in the three studied populations. Conclusions: The new markers will increase the genetic resolution in studies that aim at disentangling clones in L. pulmonaria and may be useful for closely related species within Lobaria sect. Lobaria.

Keywords

• Ascomycetes
• Ascomycota
• lichen fungi
• Lobaria pulmonaria
• microsatellites
• population subdivision