Brief Communications
Nature 404, 564 (6 April 2000) | doi:10.1038/35007142
Reproductive systems: Sex and the single lichen
G. J. Murtagh1, P. S. Dyer1 and P. D. Crittenden1
Most lichenized fungi produce abundant sexual structures, and in many species sexual spores seem to provide the only means of dispersal. For example, 90% of lichens found in Great Britain and Ireland2 produce ascomata (fruit bodies) containing sexually derived ascospores, whereas only 29% form symbiotic vegetative propagules. Sex in lichenized fungi has been assumed to equate with outcrossing3, but failure to induce sexuality in vitro has prevented experimental investigation of their breeding systems.
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Nottingham , University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD , UK
Correspondence to: e-mail: Email: pdc@nottingham.ac.uk