Mycorrhiza in the Antarctic leafy liverwort (Cephaloziella exiliflora)

• Other Authors: SEPPELT, RODNEY (hasPrincipalInvestigator), WILLIAMS, PHILIP (hasPrincipalInvestigator), WILLIAMS, PHILIP (processor), CHAMBERS, SUSAN M (hasPrincipalInvestigator), ROSER, DAVID J (hasPrincipalInvestigator), CAIRNEY, JOHN W. G. (hasPrincipalInvestigator), Australian Antarctic Data Centre (publisher)
• Format: Dataset
• Language: unknown
• Published: Australian Antarctic Data Centre
• Subjects: biota; MOSSES/HORNWORTS/LIVERWORTS; EARTH SCIENCE; BIOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION; PLANTS; SYMBIOSIS; BIOSPHERE; ECOLOGICAL DYNAMICS; SPECIES/POPULATION INTERACTIONS; BIOMASS DYNAMICS; ECOSYSTEM FUNCTIONS; FUNGUS; LEAFY LIVERWORT; CONTINENT > AUSTRALIA/NEW ZEALAND > AUSTRALIA; ANTARCTICA; GEOGRAPHIC REGION > POLAR; Antarctic; New Zealand; The Antarctic; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: https://researchdata.ands.org.au/mycorrhiza-antarctic-leafy-cephaloziella-exiliflora/699816; https://data.aad.gov.au/metadata/records/ASAC_2275; http://nla.gov.au/nla.party-617536

Metadata record for data expected from ASAC Project 2275. See the link below for public details on this project. The papers record microscope evidence and molecular evidence for the occurrence of a fungal symbiosis in an Antarctic leafy liverwort. Fungi isolated from the leafy liverwort Cephaloziella exiliflora collected in Australia and continental Antarctica were compared with Hymenoscyphus ericae using internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region DNA sequences. The isloates displayed less than 2.1% sequence divergence within the ITS region, indicating that the endophytes from C. exiliflora are probably H. ericae. The data significantly extend the known host range and geographical distribution of H. ericae and indicate that the fungus has a global distribution. The dataset also describes infections by hyaline, septate fungal hyphae in rhizoids and adjacent axial cells of the foliose liverwort Cephaloziella exiliflora collected from two locations in continental Antarctica. Evidence is presented that the fungus in the rhizoids is an ascomycete and that the endophytic infections are mycorrhiza-like or mycothalli, refuting an earlier proposal that mycorrhizas might be absent from the Antarctic.