Abstract
Lichens are symbionts of fungi with algae or cyanobacteria. We analyzed photosynthetic system of cyanobacteria inside lichens by the measurement of fluorescence spectrum of chlorophyll with a confocal laser microscope that is combined with a high-resolution spectrometer. The system allows the measurement with a spatial resolution of 200x200 nm for x-y plane and 1000 nm for z-axis, with the wavelength resolution of 1 nm. We measured the spectrum and image of each cyanobacterial cell, calculated their PS I/II ratio , and studied the distribution of cyanobacteria inside the lichens. We selected four species of lichens that contain cyanobacteria. We confirmed that cyanobacteria in Nephroma and Collema complanatum retain their filamentous cell shapes. However, we could not identify the clear filamentous structure in Peltigera polydactyla and Peltigera praetextata. The features of their photosynthetic systems compared with the cultured cells of cyanobacterium isolated from xxxx.
