TY - JOUR A1 - Jung, Patrick A1 - Lakatos, Michael A1 - Briegel-Williams, Laura A1 - Büdel, Burkhard A1 - Schultz, Matthias A1 - Nürnberg, Dennis J. A1 - Grube, Martin A1 - D'Agostino, Paul M. A1 - Kaštovský, Jan A1 - Mares, Jan A1 - Lorenz, Maike A1 - Gil Gonzáles, Manuel Luis A1 - Dal Forno, Manuela A1 - Westberg, Martin A1 - Chrismas, Nathan A1 - Pietrasiak, Nicole A1 - Whelan, Paul A1 - Dvořák, Petr A1 - Košuthová, Alica A1 - Gkelis, Spyros A1 - Bauersachs, Thorsten A1 - Schiefelbein, Ulf A1 - Phi Giao, Võ Thị T1 - The underestimated fraction: diversity, challenges and novel insights into unicellular cyanobionts of lichens N2 - Lichens are remarkable and classic examples of symbiotic organisms that have fascinated scientists for centuries. Yet, it has only been for a couple of decades that significant advances have focused on the diversity of their green algal and/or cyanobacterial photobionts. Cyanolichens, which contain cyanobacteria as their photosynthetic partner, include up to 10% of all known lichens and, as such, studies on their cyanobionts are much rarer compared to their green algal counterparts. For the unicellular cyanobionts, i.e. cyanobacteria that do not form filaments, these studies are even scarcer. Nonetheless, these currently include at least 10 different genera in the cosmopolitan lichen order Lichinales. An international consortium (International Network of CyanoBionts; INCb) will tackle this lack of knowledge. In this article, we discuss the status of current unicellular cyanobiont research, compare the taxonomic resolution of photobionts from cyanolichens with those of green algal lichens (chlorolichens), and give a roadmap of research on how to recondition the underestimated fraction of symbiotic unicellular cyanobacteria in lichens. KW - Chroococcidiopsis KW - Chroococcidiopsidales KW - Lichinales KW - Cyanolichens KW - Lichenology KW - Phycology KW - Photobiont KW - Cyanobiont Y1 - 2024 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1093/ismeco/ycae069 VL - 2024 PB - Oxford Academic CY - Oxford ER -