1999. Staatsexamen in Biology, English, and Sports, Essen University, Germany.
2002. Ph.D. in Biology, Essen University, Germany.

Research Interests:

Systematics and phylogeny of lichenized and non-lichenized ascomycetes: I am generating and analyzing datasets from the fields of molecular biology, morphology, anatomy, and chemistry to reconstruct phylogenetic estimates of selected groups of lichens and non-lichenized fungi.

Evolution of secondary metabolites in lichens: I am investigating the diversity of fungal genes involved in lichen compound production to find out more about the evolution secondary metabolites and metabolic pathways in lichens.

Current Research:

1. Evolution of fruiting bodies in lichenized ascomycetes

Filamentous ascomycetes (= Pezizomycotina, syn. Euascomycotina) are a large and economically important group of fungi. They perform vital "ecological services" and they impact diverse applied disciplines, including agriculture, medicine, and drug discovery. As mutualistic symbionts (e.g., lichens, mycorrhizae), they have enabled diverse organisms to exploit novel habitats and resources, and have probably played an important role in the beginnings of terrestrial life. For these reasons, robust fungal phylogenies are necessary for understanding the history of life, including the evolution of ecosystems. In the current study we explore the origin of apothecial types in ascomycetes to illuminate central evolutionary issues in this group of fungi. We sequence the nuclear large subunit (nu LSU) ribosomal DNA and the mitochondrial small subunit (mt SSU) ribosomal DNA and analyze the sequence alignments under parsimony, likelihood and Bayesian frameworks. The reconstruction of ancestral character traits is analyzed using rigorous statistical methods based on B/MCMC tree sampling, which have recently become available.

2. Molecular studies on the secondary chemistry of lichens: a phylogenetic approach

Lichens and non-lichenized ascomycetes produce a great variety of secondary metabolites. These compounds often show strong biological activities and thus play an important role as pharmaceuticals (e.g. as antibiotics or cholesterol lowering agents). Whereas non-lichenized fungi can easily be cultivated and analyzed with conventional screening techniques, this is not possible with the slow-growing and difficult to culture lichens. In the current study I generate sequences of the polyketide synthesis (PKS) gene family, which is responsible for the production of aromatic compounds in lichen-forming fungi. I want to find out how much diversity of PKS genes there is in lichens and how these genes evolved. Alignments and phylogenetic analyses including PKS sequences from GenBank, which have already been characterized, may provide information on the function of the lichen PKS genes.

Publications:

Palice, Z., Schmitt, I. and Lumbsch, H.T. Molecular data show that Omphalina foliacea is a lichen-forming basidiomycete. Mycological Research. In press.

Schmitt, I., Mueller, G. and Lumbsch, H.T. Ascoma morphology is homoplaseous and phylogenetically misleading in some pyrenocarpous lichens. Mycologia. In press.

Lumbsch, H.T., Schmitt, I., Mangold, A., Miller, A., Lindemuth, R., Fernandez, F. and Huhndorf, S. Performance of four ribosomal DNA regions to infer higher-level phylogenetic relationships of inoperculate euascomycetes (Leotiomyceta). Mol. Phylogenet. Evol. In press.

Wedin, M., Wiklund, E., Crewe, A., Döring, H., Ekman, S., Nyberg, Å., Schmitt, I. and Lumbsch, H.T. Phylogenetic relationships of Lecanoromycetes (Ascomycota) as revealed by analyses of mtSSU and nLSU rDNA sequence data. Myc. Res. In press.

Schmitt, I., Martin, M.P., Kautz, S. and Lumbsch, H.T. Diversity of non-reducing polyketide synthase genes in the Pertusariales (lichenized Ascomycota): a phylogenetic perspective. Phytochemistry. In press.

Heibel, E., Lumbsch, H.T. & Schmitt, I. 1999. Genetic variation of Usnea filipendula (Parmeliaceae) populations in western Germany investigated by RAPDs suggests reinvasion from various sources. Am. J. Bot. 86: 753-757.

Lumbsch, H.T., Lindemuth, R. & Schmitt, I. 2000. Evolution of filamentous ascomycetes inferred from LSU rDNA data. Pl. Biol. 2: 525-529.

Lumbsch, H.T., Schmitt, I., Döring, H. & Wedin, M. 2001. Molecular systematics supports the recognition of an additional order of Ascomycota: the Agyriales. Mycol. Res. 105: 16-23.

Lumbsch, H.T. & Schmitt I. 2001. Molecular data suggest that the genus Pertusaria is not monophyletic. Lichenologist 33: 161-170.

Lumbsch, H.T., Schmitt, I., Döring, H. & Wedin, M.. 2001. ITS sequence data suggest variability of ascus types and support ontogenetic characters as phylogenetic discriminators in the Agyriales (Ascomycota). Mycol. Res. 105: 265-274.

Schmitt, I. & Lumbsch, H.T. 2001. Identification of the photobionts in Trapeliopsis and Pertusaria using SSU ribosomal DNA sequences obtained from PCR amplification with a non-green-algal primer. Mycotaxon 78: 407-411.

Lumbsch, H.T., Schmitt I., & Messuti, M.I. 2001. Utility of nuclear SSU and LSU rDNA data sets to discover the ordinal placement of the Coccotremataceae (Ascomycota), Org. Div. Evol. 1: 99-112 (2001).

Schmitt, I., Messuti, M.I., Feige G.B. & Lumbsch H.T. 2001. Molecular data support rejection of the generic concept in the Coccotremataceae (Ascomycota). Lichenologist 33: 315- 322.

Poulsen, R.S., Schmitt, I., Søchting, U. & Lumbsch, H.T. 2001. Molecular and morphological studies on the genus Orceolina (Agyriaceae). Lichenologist 33: 323-330.

Lumbsch, H.T. & Schmitt, I. 2002. RAPD-PCR of lichens. In: Kranner, I., Beckett, R. & Varma, A. (eds.) Protocols in Lichenology, Springer, Berlin, pp. 412-424.

Schmitt, I., Mangold, A. & Lumbsch, H.T. 2002. Potential use of tRNA primers for fingerprinting in molecular lichen ecology and biogeography. Nova Hedwigia 74: 69-74.

Lumbsch, H.T., Wirtz, N., Lindemuth R. & Schmitt, I. 2002. Higher level phylogenetic relationships of euascomycetes (Pezizomycotina) inferred from a combined analysis of nuclear and mitochondrial sequence data. Mycol. Progress 1: 57-70.

Schmitt, I., M.P. Martín, R. Türk & Lumbsch, H.T. 2003. Phylogenetic position of the genera Melanaria, Varicellaria and Thamnochrolechia (Pertusariales). Bibl. Lich. 86: 147-154.

Schmitt, I., Lumbsch, H.T. & Søchting, U. 2003. Phylogeny of the lichen genus Placopsis (Agyriales) and its allies based on Bayesian analyses of nuclear and mitochondrial sequence data. Mycologia 95: 827-835.

Lumbsch, H.T., Schmitt, I., Palice, Z., Ekman, S. & Wedin, M. Supraordinal phylogenetic relationships of lichen-forming discomycetes (Lecanoromycetes) based on a combined Bayesian analysis of nuclear and mitochondrial sequences. Mol. Phylogent. Evol. Accepted.

Schmitt, I., Lumbsch, H.T. Molecular phylogeny of the Pertusariaceae supports secondary chemistry as an important systematic character set in lichen-forming ascomycetes. Submitted.