Taxonomy and Molecular Phylogeny of Usnea rubicunda and U. rubrotincta (Parmeliaceae, Lichenized Ascomycotina)

Abstract

Usnea rubicunda and U. rubrotincta are distinguished by the mode of branch elongation, the amount of fibrils on branches and soralia morphology. Molecular phylogenetic analyses of these species with maximum parsimony, maximum likelihood and Bayesian methods based on internal transcribed spacer regions of nuclear ribosomal DNA (ITS rDNA) sequences support the monophyly of each species. Primers for the amplification of Usnea ITS rDNA sequence are newly designed.