Review: Relative symbiont input and the lichen symbiotic outcome ($) (Curr Opin Plant Biol)

Lichen are quite special, as they don’t exist independently of their partnership.  Lichen are composed of a fungal partner and a photosynthetic partner (the algal or cyanobacterial photobiont), and these partnerships have evolved independently many times.  Spribille provides an overview of some of the many questions that remain unanswered in the study of lichen and the challenges in developing accurate lichen taxonomies, including the relatively new finding that most lichen also include yeast or bacteria as fundamental participants. (Summary by Mary Williams) Curr. Opin. Plant Biol. 10.1016/j.pbi.2018.02.007