The principal goal of our study was to test whether ecologically and chemically different populations of lichens in the Physconia muscigena group belong to a single, or multiple, species. We used sequence data from three markers (ITS rDNA, mtSSU rDNA and TEF1-α) for the reconstruction of phylogenetic trees based on a sampling of mostly European and Canadian populations of P. muscigena (Ach.) Poelt, P. muscigena var. bayeri (Nádv.) Poelt and P. isidiomuscigena Essl. In addition, we sought any possible geographical or ecological trends among chemotypes and haplotypes. Results show that: 1) sequence data of ITS rDNA and TEF1-α show large genetic variation in the Physconia muscigena group, which does not correlate with geographical distribution or thallus chemistry; 2) Physconia muscigena var. bayeri and P. isidiomuscigena appear undifferentiated with P. muscigena in our phylogenetic trees, and the three species cannot be distinguished on the basis of ITS rDNA, mtSSU rDNA and TEF1-α sequences. We therefore synonymized Physconia muscigena var. bayeri with P. muscigena and we recombine P. isidiomuscigena as a variety of P. muscigena.

中文翻译：

---

北半球 Physconia muscigena 组（Physciaceae，Ascomycota）的遗传变异性

我们研究的主要目标是测试在生态和化学上不同的地衣种群是否在马鞭草组属于一个或多个物种。我们使用来自三个标记（ITS rDNA、mtSSU rDNA 和 TEF1-α）的序列数据来重建基于欧洲和加拿大种群的系统发育树。P. muscigena（Ach.）珀尔特，P. muscigena变种。巴耶里(Nádv.) Poelt 和P. isidiomuscigena埃斯尔。此外，我们在化学型和单倍型之间寻找任何可能的地理或生态趋势。结果表明：1）ITS rDNA和TEF1-α的序列数据显示出大的遗传变异。马鞭草组，与地理分布或菌体化学无关；2)马鞭草变种。巴耶里和P. isidiomuscigena与P. muscigena在我们的系统发育树中，不能根据 ITS rDNA、mtSSU rDNA 和 TEF1-α 序列区分这三个物种。因此，我们将同义词马鞭草变种。巴耶里和P. muscigena我们重新组合P. isidiomuscigena作为各种P. muscigena.