REU: Biosystematic Revision of the Polypodium vulgare Complex

现代分子方法正在为蕨类系统学和进化生物学的研究注入新的活力。特别是，对蛋白质同工酶和其他基因标记的分析现在使研究人员能够确定参与杂交事件和多倍体进化(通过染色体加倍而改变)的亲本物种。结合研究叶绿体DNA变异的新技术，这些方法为确定蕨类植物群体的系统发育关系带来了巨大的希望。堪萨斯大学的Chris Haufler博士继续倡导使用新的分子方法来解决蕨类生物学中长期存在的分类问题。这个项目将集中在一组环北极蕨类植物的水龙骨属复合体。除了分子数据，来自孢子研究和叶片形状的新形态数据将用于划定自然界中的物种，鉴定杂交种群和多倍体，并测试多倍体杂交是罕见还是常见。这些结果将使蕨类植物的物种形成模式和机制与已知的开花植物物种形成模式和机制进行更严格的比较。

Modern molecular methods are revitalizing the study of fern systematics and evolutionary biology. In particular, analyses of protein isozymes and other gene markers now enable researchers to determine the parental species involved in hybridization events and in polyploid evolution (change through chromosome doubling). Coupled with new techniques for investigating variation in chloroplast DNA, these approaches hold great promise for determining the phylogenetic relationships of groups of ferns. Dr. Chris Haufler of the University of Kansas continues to pioneer the use of new molecular methods in resolving long- standing taxonomic problems in fern biology. This project will focus on a circumboreal group of ferns of the Polypodium vulgare complex. In addition to molecular data, new morphological data from spore studies and leaf shape will be used to delimit species in nature, identify hybrid populations and polyploids, and test whether polyploid hybrids occur rarely or commonly. These results will then permit more rigorous comparisons of the modes and mechanisms of speciation in ferns with those known for flowering plants.