of the Lecanoromycetes (Ascomycota)

The resolving power and statistical support provided by two protein-coding (RPB1 and RPB2) and three ribosomal RNA-coding (nucSSU, nucLSU, and mitSSU) genes individually and in various combinations were investigated based on maximum likelihood boot-strap analyses on lichen-forming fungi from the class Lecanoromycetes (Ascomycota). Our results indicate that the optimal loci (single and combined) to use for molecular systematics of lichen-forming Ascomycota are protein-coding genes (RPB1 and RPB2). RPB1 and RPB2 genes individually were phylogenetically more eYcient than all two- and three-locus combinations of ribosomal loci. The 3rd codon position of each of these two loci provided the most characters in support of phylogenetic relationships within the Lecanoromyce-tes. Of the three ribosomal loci we used in this study, mitSSU contributed the most to phylogenetic analyses when combined with RPB1 and RPB2. Except for the mitSSU, ribosomal genes were the most diYcult to recover because they often contain many introns, resulting in PCR bias toward numerous and intronless co-extracted contaminant fungi (mainly Dothideomycetes, Chaetothyriomycetes, and Sordariomycetes in the Ascomycota, and members of the Basidiomycota), which inhabit lichen thalli. Maximum likelihood analysis on the combined Wve-locus data set for 82 members of the Lecanoromycetes provided a well resolved and well supported tree compared to existing phylogenies. We conWrmed the monophyly of three recognized subclasses in the Lecanoromycetes, the Acarosporomycetidae, Ostropomycetidae, and Lecanoromycetideae; the latter delimited as monophyletic for the Wrst time, with the exclusion of the family Umbilicariaceae and Hypocenomyce scalaris. The genus Candelariella (formerly in the Candelariaceae, currently a member of the Leca