Reindeer Lichens Are Having More Sex Than Thought – Unexpected Levels of Genetic Diversity – SciTechDaily

Reindeer lichen. Credit: Marta Alonso-García
Genetic analysis shows that reindeer lichens reproduce sexually as opposed to asexually more often than researchers thought.
In northern Canada, the forest floor is carpeted with reindeer lichens. They look like a moss made of tiny gray branches, but they’re stranger than that: they’re composite organisms, a fungus and algae living together as one. They’re a major part of reindeer diets, hence the name, and the forest depends on them to move nutrients…

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