51福利社

Thanks to an intrepid Eastern researcher, an 鈥榦dd organism鈥� gets its turn in the spotlight.

By Charles E. Reineke

She is a renowned star of stage and screen, a media mogul and philanthropist. It is a previously unidentified 鈥渟ymbiotic organism formed by close cooperation between a fungus and an alga.鈥� Now, thanks in part to an 51福利社 biologist, that organism—a lichen—and the voluble celebrity—Oprah Winfrey—will be forever linked, at least in the annals of lichenized-fungi taxonomy.

Earlier this year, Jessica Allen, a lichenologist and assistant professor of biology at 51福利社, and James Lendemer, an assistant curator at the New York Botanical Garden, found themselves puzzling over an unfamiliar lichen found growing on tree bark in rural Alabama. The leafy, jigsaw-puzzle-like 鈥渇oliose鈥� lichen, so called because of those leaf-like lobes, didn鈥檛 quite fit the characteristics of any known species. Back in the lab, chemical analysis showed a distinct profile, while an examination with ultraviolet light yielded a bright-yellow glow that further confirmed its uniqueness.

When it comes to the few dozen new lichens identified each year, naming rights belong to the discoverers. Because this glowing member of the genus Hypotrachyna was found near Koscuisko, home town to—you guessed it—Oprah, Allen and Lendemer called it 鈥淥prah鈥檚 sunshine,鈥� or, as it will be known in the trade, Hypotrachyna oprah.

H. oprah joins the roughly 20,000 lichen species already identified. There are plenty more waiting to be discovered; botanists estimate that only five percent of the world鈥檚 fungi have been fully documented.

Researchers such as Allen and Lendemer are determined to lessen that deficit, a task motivated in part by scientists鈥� growing awareness that lichens, always a crucial environmental player, are now emerging as an important 鈥渂io-indicator鈥� of our planet鈥檚 overall health.

鈥淓ven though they are really small, lichens are actually important pieces of the whole, overarching ecosystem,鈥� says Allen. They are habitats for tiny invertebrates, she says, like water bears, nematodes and small worms. Insects use them for camouflage and for food. Slugs and snails also eat them, as do larger, more charismatic creatures such as deer 鈥� who depend on lichens for winter forage 鈥� as well as caribou and bighorn sheep that eat them year-round. Because lichens don鈥檛 hold water and naturally produce antibiotic and anti-bacterial compounds, numerous bird species use them for nesting materials.”

鈥淎s far as humans go,鈥� Allen adds, 鈥渕ost lichens are really sensitive to the same air pollutants that cause health problems, so we use them for large-scale air quality monitoring worldwide.鈥�

This wasn鈥檛 the first time Allen and her research partner linked a new lichen to an A-List personality. 鈥淛ames and I named a species after Dolly Parton, I think, three years ago. So this was the second in our series of Southeastern lichen celebrities,鈥� she says with a laugh.

Allen, who earned a bachelor鈥檚 degree from Eastern before completing a doctorate at the City University of New York, gets why some might think linking Dolly and Oprah to lichens is simply a ploy to capture the attention of, well, media organizations like this one. But there鈥檚 nothing frivolous about it, she says.

鈥淪ome people feel really strongly that you should give species鈥� names that describe what they look like, only in Latin,鈥� says Allen. 鈥淥ur purpose was to honor two women who have accomplished some incredible things in their lives, women who are really strong philanthropists. It鈥檚 also because there are just very few species named after women. We鈥檙e honoring them for their work, but also highlighting this gap that we see in our nomenclature.鈥�

Make no mistake, she continues, lichen nomenclature is a serious business. 鈥淭he name sticks with the organism, basically, forever,鈥� she says. 鈥淵ou can change the genus, change how it’s organized evolutionarily, change how it fits with our overall knowledge of how it and other species are related to one another. But unless someone demonstrates a flaw in the identification, that second name, Oprah, is stuck to it.鈥�

Allen does concede, however, that she and Lendemer aren鈥檛 averse to using the glow of celebrity to give lichens a bit of a PR boost. On this score there is much work to be done.

In an otherwise informative webpage, for example, the U.S. Forest Service admits up front that 鈥渘ot many people know what lichens are, and who would? They seem as though they are from another planet!鈥�

Lichens are indeed odd organisms. Neither entirely fungus or algae, they exist in what biologists call a 鈥渕utualistic relationship鈥� between the two. Lichens typically consist of a thallus 鈥� the vegetative body produced by the fungus 鈥� and a photosynthetic agent that feeds it, either algae or cyanobacteria (a bacterium sometimes mistakenly referred to as 鈥渂lue-green algae鈥�). Unlike plants, they do not have roots, stems or leaves.

Lichens grow very slowly, reproducing in both sexual and non-sexual ways. They need only air and rain to sustain themselves, and, also unlike plants, can shut down completely to survive long-exposures to drought and other extreme conditions.

Lichen-friendly substrates 鈥� the surfaces on which lichens grow 鈥� can be found all over, from mountain peaks to coastal marshes, from scalding savannahs to freezing tundra. One lichen, Xanthoria elegans, even survived outside the International Space Station. But lichens seem happiest in warm places where there is plenty of water, air, nutrients and light.

The rural Southeast is one of those places, which explains in part why Allen and Lendemer spend so much time trudging through the backyards of southerners like Dolly Parton and Oprah Winfrey.

The discovery of H. oprah happened, for example, while the two scientists were participating in the lichen-collecting workshop near the Alabama/Mississippi border, about 50 miles from Winfrey鈥檚 birthplace. The area is a classic biodiversity hotspot, home to astonishing range of plants, animals and, of course, lichens.

鈥淚t鈥檚 the last tailings of the Appalachian Mountains spilling down into the coastal plain of the Southeast,鈥� says Allen. 鈥淒eciduous trees, mixed deciduous forests, really high tree diversity, pretty dense understory. It鈥檚 basically, but not quite, subtropical. Really wet, lots of rain. A tropical influence without quite being subtropical.鈥�

Lichen hunts are decidedly low-tech: pinpoint a promising spot and start collecting. 鈥淲e use wood chisels to pry them off wood, rock chisels to collect on rocks, clippers for lichens on limbs 鈥� these things are usually growing on trees, or on rocks or on the soil,鈥� Allen says, noting that she and Lendemer often attract the attention of curious, if standoffish, locals.

鈥淲e end up with whole pillow cases stuffed full of lichens 鈥� we look crazy, right? Most of the time they will give you a look, but they never say anything.鈥�

The researchers typically don鈥檛 discriminate among lichens in the field, instead taking samples from pretty much every species they see. The reason, Allen says, is two-fold. One, it鈥檚 easy to mistake one lichen for another. H. oprah, for example, was likely confused with H. osseoalba, another lichen also found in the warm, wet forests of the southeastern U.S.

The other reason involves a more general need to catalog what鈥檚 out there. 鈥淲e鈥檙e basically just trying to document the full diversity of species in the area, preserving them so that other scientists can study them for years, even centuries, to come,鈥� says Allen. 鈥淲e still have specimens from Darwin and earlier, some collections have samples dating back to the 1500s.鈥�

Back out in the field, newly collected lichens are plopped into paper lunch bags, Allen says, 鈥渓ike you鈥檇 send with your kid to school.鈥�

The scientists then record the lichens鈥� location and note their substrate. Eventually, they鈥檒l haul them off to reside with older specimen in an herbarium, a building housing a preserved collection of plants and fungi.

鈥淲e have an herbarium here at Eastern actually,鈥� Allen says. 鈥淭his work was mostly done at the New York Botanical Garden, which is the second-largest herbarium in the world. But here at Eastern we have our own slowly growing collection housed in the Science Building.鈥�

For specimen deserving of extra attention, like the lichen that became H. oprah, a trip to the laboratory is next. Here state-of-the-art tools come into play. Dissecting microscopes and imaging software help scientists produce a detailed description of the lichen鈥檚 physical characteristics. Analyses involving exposure to ultraviolet light 鈥� part of a process called thin-layer chromatography 鈥� helps determine how the lichen鈥檚 compounds compare to previously documented species. Sometimes the scientists take tissue for genetic testing. The process, from collecting in the field to preparing their findings for publication, can take months, even years.

Allen says the effort is more than worth it, especially for researchers like her who love both lichens and the challenge they represent. The love part began, she says, back when she was an undergraduate at 51福利社, where she became enthralled by lichens鈥� peculiar attractions.

鈥淚 still think they鈥檙e beautiful,鈥� she says. 鈥淏ut as a scientist, I like working with lichens because there is just so much we don鈥檛 know about them, and so many contributions that, as a researcher, you can make to the field. And it鈥檚 great to be here at Eastern, because there is so much that the students can do, as graduate or even undergraduate student researchers, that can substantially contribute to our body of knowledge.鈥�

Allen and Lendemer鈥檚 discovery was published in Castanea, the journal of the Southern Appalachian Botanical Society. Oprah was unavailable for comment.