Ribosomal Genes and the Phylogeny of Chlorophytes, Charophytes, and Bryophytes

将结合收集分子数据和明确数据分析的现代方法来研究绿藻和低地植物（即苔藓植物或苔藓、苔类植物和角苔类植物）之间系统发育关系的问题。将使用各种方法从感兴趣的植物中获取核酸，并对核糖体RNA基因的各个区域进行测序。这些基因序列将被比较，争论了一个多世纪的假设基本问题将成为苔藓、苔类和角苔类研究的重点。在该项目的第二个组成部分中，将对叶藻（也称为石藻，是一种重要的形态先进的藻类）的分类学、系统发育和生物地理学方面的截然不同的对立观点进行研究。所提供的证据应能解决当前的冲突。该项目的第三个组成部分侧重于绿藻的各种谱系，并将完成目前对海洋绿藻和非常不寻常的“共轭绿藻”（即Zygnematales）等群体的研究。要完成的数据分析中分子和形态数据的结合将提供结合数据集的实用性的一个突出例子。所收集的数据还将补充维管植物的类似序列数据。

Modern methods of gathering molecular data and of explicit data analysis will be combined to examine questions about the phylogenetic relationships among green algae and lower land plants (i.e., the bryophytes or mosses, liverworts, and hornworts). Various methods will be used to obtain nucleic acids from the plants of interest and to sequence various regions of the ribosomal RNA genes. The gene sequences will then be compared and hypotheses fundamental questions debated for over a century will be the focus in a study on mosses, liverworts, and hornworts. In a second component of the project strikingly different, opposing views about the taxonomy, phylogeny, and biogeography of the charophytes (also known as the stoneworts, and important group of morphologically advance algae) will be examined. The evidence provided should resolve the current conflict. The third component of the project focusses on various lineages of chlorophytes (green algae) and will complete current studies on such groups as the marine green algae and the very unusual "conjugating green algae" (i.e., the Zygnematales). The combination of molecular and morphological data in the data analyses to be completed will provide an outstanding example of the utility of combining data sets. The data collected will also complement similar sequence data available for the vascular land plants.