RPG: Molecular History of Hawaiian Geraniums

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Michaels 9407851 This project investigates the six species of Geranium that are native and limited to the Hawaiian islands. These species share unique morphological features distinguishing them from the rest of the genus and exhibit an array of unusual divergent species groups. Because the group is both small and diverse, the Hawaiian geraniums are prime subjects for intensive study of island forms and the adaptive morphological changes following speciation. The study is designed to evaluate the use of sequence data from maternally inherited chloroplast genes and the internal transcribed spacer region of the biparentally inherited nuclear ribosomal genes as sources of characters for phylogenetic (genealogical) analysis. The research will contribute to expanding our limited knowledge of Hawaiian biotic history and will establish a phylogenetic context for planned future work on the genetic divergence between and within populations of the two endangered species, Geranium arboreum and G. multiflorum.