Phylogeny, Development, and Taxonomy of Setaria and its Relatives

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The cereal crops foxtail millet and pearl millet, and noxious weedssuch as green foxtail and sandbur are all closely related members of thegrass family, and are part of a group of 310 species descended from asingle ancestor. These plants are all characterized by odd "bristles"interspersed among their flowers; the bristles are highly modifiedbranches. This project will determine the precise relationships among asmany species as possible in the "bristle group" using DNA sequences fromthe nucleus and the chloroplast. At the same time, the development of theseed head (inflorescence) and flowers will be studied for a precisedescription of how the species differ. Along with this, the graduatestudent supported on the grant will determine how many species are in thefoxtail millet group, what the species look like, and will writeidentification guides to them. Because there is already information onthe species in North and South America, this part of the project will focuson Asia and Africa. The information gained in this project will connect directly withother information already available on foxtail millet and the panicoidgrasses. The genes that control morphological variation in foxtail milletare under active investigation, and some of these are similar to knowngenes in maize. It should soon be possible to describe morphologicalvariation in the clade in terms of the genes involved. This will helpanswer questions about how species and larger groups are formed. Theresulting study will provide a direct and explicit link between phylogeny,developmental morphology, and taxonomy, and will provide a framework forwork on the evolution of development