Bacterial community of reindeer lichens differs between northern and southern lichen woodlands

Lichens cover nearly 7% of the earth’s surface and in eastern Canada, lichen woodlands occupy over 300,000 km2. Reindeer lichens (genus Cladonia), are main component they play a crucial role boreal forest ecology. We study, for first time, bacterial community four species reindeer from North America’s forests. Using 16S rRNA gene, we characterize 189 samples. aim to analyse effect host-identity geography composition structure, verify presence common core bacteria identify most abundant taxa. Our results suggest that host-lichen identity does not determine structure lichens, but confirm influence shaping diversity abundance associated Cladonia stellaris. also reveal share reduced composed exclusively by Alphaproteobacteria. Northern exhibit significantly higher stellaris than southern woodlands. The Methylorosula polaris is evident may have particular importance lichens.