Lichinales is the sole

order Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * A socio-political or established or existing order, e.g. World order, Ancien Regime, Pax Britannica * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood ...

ascomycete Ascomycota is a phylum of the kingdom Fungi that, together with the Basidiomycota, forms the subkingdom Dikarya. Its members are commonly known as the sac fungi or ascomycetes. It is the largest phylum of Fungi, with over 64,000 species. The def ...

fungi A fungus (: fungi , , , or ; or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and mold (fungus), molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as one ...

in the class Lichinomycetes. It contains three

families Family (from ) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictability, structure, and safety as ...

: Gloeoheppiaceae (3

genera Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family as used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In binomial nomenclature, the genus name forms the first part of the binomial s ...

), Lichinaceae (43 genera), and Peltulaceae (1 genus). Most species are

lichen A lichen ( , ) is a hybrid colony (biology), colony of algae or cyanobacteria living symbiotically among hypha, filaments of multiple fungus species, along with yeasts and bacteria embedded in the cortex or "skin", in a mutualism (biology), m ...

ized. Lichinales was proposed in 1986 by German lichenologists Aino Henssen and Burkhard Büdel. The class Lichinomycetes was created by Valérie Reeb, François Lutzoni and Claude Roux in 2004. A study published in late 2022 suggests that six classes of fungi, Candelariomycetes,

Coniocybomycetes The Coniocybaceae are the sole family of lichen-forming fungi in the Coniocybales, which itself is the only order in the class Coniocybomycetes. Taxonomy The family was circumscribed by Heinrich Gottlieb Ludwig Reichenbach in 1837. Both the o ...

Geoglossomycetes Geoglossaceae is a family of fungi in the order Geoglossales, class Geoglossomycetes. These fungi are broadly known as earth tongues. The ascocarps of most species in the family Geoglossaceae are terrestrial and are generally small, dark in col ...

Lichinomycetes Lichinales is the sole order (biology), order of ascomycete fungi in the class Lichinomycetes. It contains three family (biology), families: Gloeoheppiaceae (3 genus, genera), Lichinaceae (43 genera), and Peltulaceae (1 genus). Most species are l ...

, Sareomycetes, and Xylonomycetes, are all part of a

clade In biology, a clade (), also known as a Monophyly, monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Clades are the fundamental unit of cladistics, a modern approach t ...

that has a

sister A sister is a woman or a girl who shares parents or a parent with another individual; a female sibling. The male counterpart is a brother. Although the term typically refers to a familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to ref ...

relationship with a clade containing Lecanoromycetes and

Eurotiomycetes Eurotiomycetes is a large class of ascomycetes with cleistothecial ascocarps within the subphylum Pezizomycotina, currently containing around 3810 species according to the Catalogue of Life. It is the third largest lichenized class, with more th ...

. Lichinomycetes is the oldest name among these orders, and so the authors used this name for the group.

Phylogenomic Phylogenomics is the intersection of the fields of evolution and genomics. The term has been used in multiple ways to refer to analysis that involves genome data and evolutionary reconstructions. It is a group of techniques within the larger fields ...

analysis of a 481-

genome A genome is all the genetic information of an organism. It consists of nucleotide sequences of DNA (or RNA in RNA viruses). The nuclear genome includes protein-coding genes and non-coding genes, other functional regions of the genome such as ...

set showed that as a group, the Lichinomycetes have relatively small genomes, and fewer metabolic gene clusters; one consequence of this is an inability to break down

cellulose Cellulose is an organic compound with the chemical formula, formula , a polysaccharide consisting of a linear chain of several hundred to many thousands of glycosidic bond, β(1→4) linked glucose, D-glucose units. Cellulose is an important s ...

and

pectin Pectin ( ': "congealed" and "curdled") is a heteropolysaccharide, a structural polymer contained in the primary lamella, in the middle lamella, and in the cell walls of terrestrial plants. The principal chemical component of pectin is galact ...

. Because of this reduced metabolic capability, Lichinomycetes fungi may have adapted to partner symbiotically with other species to compensate for these losses.

References

Lichinomycetes Lichen orders Ascomycota orders Taxa named by Aino Henssen Taxa described in 1986 {{Ascomycetes-stub