RPG: Evolution of Whole Plant Ontogeny in Pelargonium

9408208琼斯在过去的几年里，发展已经成为进化生物学的一个主要主题。最近从动物发育的跨学科研究中获得的见解正在为比较生物学的新综合奠定基础。然而，在植物中进行的可比性研究很少。该项目将启动一项关于天葵属植物整个生长型分化的发育基础的研究。对于这项研究来说，这是一个理想的类群，因为1)物种表现出巨大的整体植物形态范围；2)对基因序列的初步分析表明，历史上的亲缘关系可以在这个类群中解决；3)该类群在其他方面得到了很好的研究，但缺乏对发育形态的基础研究。PI将比较来自天麻亚属每个主要谱系的三个物种的幼苗的形态和组织发育。拟议的调查集中在苗木上，因为生命周期的这一阶段代表了身体计划的最早表达。苗木重要的生态结构的结构比较，以及后期表达的构造规则的推导，将为推断整个植物体内计划以及评估储水和碳水化合物组织形成的开始和时间的重要性提供框架。

9408208 Jones Within the last few years, development has emerged as a major theme in evolutionary biology. Recent insights gainsed from interdisciplinary studies of development in animals are laying the foundation for a new synthesis in comparative biology. There have been very few comparable studies in plants, however. The PI will initiate a study of the developmental basis of differentiation in whole plant growth form in the genus Pelargonium. This is an ideal group for this study because 1) species exhibit a tremendous range of whole plant morphology; 2) preliminary analyses of gene sequences suggest that historical relationships can be resolved in this group; and 3) the group is well studied in other respects but basic studies of developmental morphology are lacking. the PI will compare morphological and histological development of seedlings in three species from each major lineage in the subgenus Pelargonium. The proposed investigation focusses on seedlings because this stage of the life cycle represents the earliest expression of the body plan. Structural comparisons of ecologically important structures of seedlings, together with deduction of rules of construction expressed at later stages, will provide the framework for deduction of the whole plant body plan as well as assessment of the importance of the onset and timing of formation of water-storing and carbohydrate-storing tissues.