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Reproductive Biology of Lichens

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Reproductive Biology of Plants

Abstract

Lichens are among the most widely distributed eukaryotic organisms in the world (Galun 1988) and already about 14000 lichen species are known. Since the symbiotic association of a mycobiont and a photobiont is a pre-requisite to the existence of a lichen, for its dispersal either both partners must be distributed simultaneously or certain adaptations must ensure contact and relichenisation after separate dissemination of mycobionts and photobionts (Jahns 1988). Although the symbiotic association provides the lichen the ability to grow on a wide variety of substrata in diverse climate conditions, the dispersal unit is decided primarily by the type of reproduction, sexual or non-sexual. Since in the lichens the mycobiont is the ‘exhabitant’ and the photobiont the ‘inhabitant’, and since it is the exhabitant which normally retains the capacity to reproduce sexually in mutualistic symbiosis (Law and Lewis 1983), sexual reproduction of lichens involves only the mycobiont which produces a fruiting body that contains spores. The fungal spores are liberated and under suitable conditions and substrata they germinate and acquire compatible algae and develop new vegetative thalli. In nonsexual reproduction both mycobiont and photobiont multiply and remain associated in producing the vegetative propagules such as soredia, isidia and hormocysts.

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© 2001 Narosa Publishing House

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Krishnamurthy, K.V., Upreti, D.K. (2001). Reproductive Biology of Lichens. In: Johri, B.M., Srivastava, P.S. (eds) Reproductive Biology of Plants. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-50133-3_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-50133-3_7

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-50135-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-50133-3

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