Brigham Young University, Utah, USA
We are collaborating with Prof. Assoc. Steven D. Leavitt (College of Life Sciences, Life Science Museum, BYU, Utah, USA) on the project concerning phylogeny of Acarosporaceae in southwestern North America foccused in detail on proving or disproving hybridization or introgresion in the very variable group of Acarospora strigata. The project is funded by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports grant project (Inter-Excellence II, sub-programme INTER-ACTION, LUAUS23, The evolution, diversity and hybridization of Acarosporaceae in southwestern North America: an integrative study using classical taxonomy, phylogenetics, and genomics. Prof. Assoc. Steven D. Leavitt has already collected large number of samples of A. strigata group and prepared ITS library. He will lead sequencing and analysis of the entire genome of Acarospora peltastica from the A. strigata group and we could better understand evolutionary processes in the Acarosporaceae family.