Impact of secondary metabolites and primary reproductive mode on Parmotrema distribution in the Southeastern United States
Faculty Mentor
Jessica Allen
Document Type
Poster
Start Date
10-5-2023 9:00 AM
End Date
10-5-2023 10:45 AM
Location
PUB NCR
Department
Biology
Abstract
Lichens are organisms resulting from fungal and algal symbioses that produce a wide variety of secondary metabolites which serve a variety of biological functions). It is postulated that presence of certain secondary metabolites has an impact on lichen distribution . Some lichen species utilize apothecia for sexual reproduction, while others primarily use lichenized asexual propagules . We hypothesized that distribution of a Parmotrema species would increase based on two separate factors: the number of secondary metabolites a species produces and the number of apotheciate individuals within a species. Using the digital herbarium we observed and recorded the presence or absence of apothecia as well as the number of secondary metabolites for 11 species that occur within the Eastern United States. Linear regression data analysis was conducted, which indicated that there was no significant correlation between the number of secondary metabolites produced by a species and species density (p = 0.432). We did find a significant positive correlative relationship between the percent of specimens with apothecia for a given species and that species' density (p = 0.023) with 66.2% of density attributed to apothecial frequency in observed herbarium specimens. To further investigate our hypothesis three primarily apotheciate species were added to our study. This larger data set indicated that there is no significant correlation between total species distribution and the primary reproductive mode with a Student's t-Test finding no significant correlation (p = 0.379).
Recommended Citation
Lake, Meg and Larsen, Elaine, "Impact of secondary metabolites and primary reproductive mode on Parmotrema distribution in the Southeastern United States" (2023). 2023 Symposium. 6.
https://dc.ewu.edu/srcw_2023/res_2023/p1_2023/6
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Impact of secondary metabolites and primary reproductive mode on Parmotrema distribution in the Southeastern United States
PUB NCR
Lichens are organisms resulting from fungal and algal symbioses that produce a wide variety of secondary metabolites which serve a variety of biological functions). It is postulated that presence of certain secondary metabolites has an impact on lichen distribution . Some lichen species utilize apothecia for sexual reproduction, while others primarily use lichenized asexual propagules . We hypothesized that distribution of a Parmotrema species would increase based on two separate factors: the number of secondary metabolites a species produces and the number of apotheciate individuals within a species. Using the digital herbarium we observed and recorded the presence or absence of apothecia as well as the number of secondary metabolites for 11 species that occur within the Eastern United States. Linear regression data analysis was conducted, which indicated that there was no significant correlation between the number of secondary metabolites produced by a species and species density (p = 0.432). We did find a significant positive correlative relationship between the percent of specimens with apothecia for a given species and that species' density (p = 0.023) with 66.2% of density attributed to apothecial frequency in observed herbarium specimens. To further investigate our hypothesis three primarily apotheciate species were added to our study. This larger data set indicated that there is no significant correlation between total species distribution and the primary reproductive mode with a Student's t-Test finding no significant correlation (p = 0.379).
