Isolation, Culture and Molecular Identification of Extreme Lichen Mycobionts and Photobiont from the Pampas de la Joya, Desert of Peru.

The lichens are formed by one or more fungal or micobiontic species, and one or more photosynthetic species living in a obligate ecological association forming an symbiotic system helping each other, the photobiont provides the carbon and/or nitrogen source, and the mycobiont provide protection; mechanism that helps the system achieve the ability to survive in extreme conditions. The existence of extreme species in the Pampas de la Joya has not been much studied. The place called Pampas de la Joya is considered as a Martian analogue because of its low precipitation less than 1mm/year, high levels of radiation with maximum values of 1060 W/m2 on the driest days, dramatic temperature that change from maximum values of 35.9 C to minimum values of -4 C. we have reported a variety of chemical composition of the soil that makes the presence of biological organism very scarce and low in this zone. In this research, endolithic and epilithic lichens are reported for the first time, samples were collected in the informal well know-zone called as Mar de cuarzos. In addition to the isolating and purification of the species, the mycobiont was cultivated in PDA medium and the photobiont in 3NBBM medium at room temperature. The ITS region was amplified using the primers ITS4 for PCR amplification for the mycobionts, and the primers ITS1 and ITS4 were used for PCR amplification of the phycobiont, Identifying two species of mycobionts: Neocatenulostroma Microsporum, with a 95.49% of identity with an uncultivated fungus clone rcw_129 (KM104065.1), and Acarospora cf. Bullata, shown a 95 % of identity with Acarospora gwynnii voucher (MF138060) which shows that are new species not reported, and the photobiont of the Chloridium angustoellipsoideum shown a 99.37 % of identity with Chloridium angustoellipsoideum (KM116463). The results provide a scientific basis for further research the molecular mechanisms of lichen resistance to extreme environments conditions, and the characterization of new molecules and components of this new micro-ecosystem in extreme environments.