Endophyte biology is a branch of science that contributes to the understanding of the diversity and ecology of microorganisms that live inside plants, fungi, and lichen. Considering that the diversity of endolichenic fungi is little explored, and its phylogenetic relationship with other lifestyles (endophytism and saprotrophism) is still to be explored in detail, this paper presents data on axenic cultures and phylogenetic relationships of three endolichenic fungi, isolated in laboratory. Cladonia curta Ahti & Marcelli, a species of lichen described in Brazil, is distributed at three sites in the Southeast of the country, in mesophilous forests and the Cerrado. Initial hyphal growth of Xylaria spp. on C. curta podetia started four days after inoculation and continued for the next 13 days until the hyphae completely covered the podetia. Stromata formation and differentiation was observed, occurring approximately after one year of isolation and consecutive subculture of lineages. Phylogenetic analyses indicate lineages of endolichenic fungi in the genus Xylaria, even as the morphological characteristics of the colonies and anamorphous stromata confirm this classification. Our preliminary results provide evidence that these endolichenic fungi are closely related to endophytic fungi, suggesting that the associations are not purely incidental. Further studies, especially phylogenetic analyses using robust multi-locus datasets, are needed to accept or reject the hypothesis that endolichenic fungi isolated from Xylaria spp. and X. berteri are conspecific.
Keywords: Brazil; ITS; Xylaria berteri; Xylaroideae; fungi; lichen; phylogeny; qPCR.