We know all about lichens ....NOT!

The lowly lichen upsets the accepted wisdom apple cart.....BIG TIME>!!!:eek:

Quote:

Lichens aren't quite what we thought, shocked scientists discover New yeasts found to be secret partners with known fungi and algae By Emily Chung, CBC News Posted: Jul 21, 2016 2:35 PM ET Last Updated: Jul 21, 2016 3:08 PM ET Most people know lichens as those flaky, light green things that grow on tree bark, and learned in school that they're a mutually beneficial partnership or "symbiosis" between a fungus and an algae. But lichen scientists have made the shocking new discovery that many lichens are also made up of a previously undiscovered third partner — a new kind of yeast. Not only does that potentially alter the fundamental definition of what a lichen is, but it "should change expectations about the diversity and ubiquity" of the organisms that form them, says a new study published today in Science. Toby Spribille University of Montana researcher Toby Spribille samples Bryoria or horeshair lichens. He first started studying lichens 15 years ago in British Columbia. His new study was inspired by a mystery flagged by B.C. lichenologist Trevor Goward. (Christoph Rosche) The new yeast has apparently gone undetected in lichens for more than a century, despite the fact that scientists all over the world have devoted entire careers to studying lichens closely with microscopes and genetic testing. That seemed so unlikely that the scientists working on the project had trouble believing it themselves. "It's so surprising that you kind of doubt yourself for a long time," said John McCutcheon, a microbiologist at the University of Montana and a research fellow with the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research who co-authored the new study published today in Science. "We had to check our data more than 10 times," recalled Toby Spribille, lead author of the paper. "It seemed to me so unlikely that so many people would have missed that."

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