Integrated Studies of Floral Development, Traditional and Molecular Systematics, and Floristics in the Violet Family (Violaceae)

[02:10 . 54]许多被子植物科的一般区分和主要分支通常取决于花的对称或结构特征以及生殖结构本身的形态。这在紫罗兰科（紫罗兰科）中是正确的，这是一个中等大小的被子植物家族，从热带森林的大型树冠树到指甲大小的安第斯puna莲座植物的生长形式范围很广。主要是昆虫授粉，然而，这个家族拥有广泛的花和果实形态，与其他被子植物的整个目相当。从放线形到极端颧形的一个明显的简单趋势，加上花马刺中雄蕊蜜腺的日益精细，在一般概念以及对部落和亚部落的分配中占有重要地位。然而，最近基于trnL-F和rbcL叶绿体区域序列的属属关系研究，拒绝了花对称和花蜜发育的简单化趋势，以及目前基于这一趋势的传统分类，而是揭示了来自不同径向对称无刺谱系的具有刺的双边对称花类型的几个独立起源。此外，泛热带的Hybanthus，科中第三大属，分裂成7个独立的群，分布在整个科中，这表明其独特的“着陆平台”花是一种反复出现的进化综合征。第二大泛热带属，梨属，也基本上是异质的和非单系的。拟议的研究计划将整合全面的花发育研究来阐明花的进化；系统研究大、微形态特征、染色体数目、木质部解剖和花粉形态，以重新评价属和可诊断分离的界限和区别；并从叶绿体trl - f间隔区和rbcL基因区域推断属属关系，为检验关系和开发预测分类提供强大的分子系统发育基础。然后，通过对密苏里州圣路易斯市密苏里植物园主要植物标本馆藏品的检查，将利用新的和先前存在的性状和新的家族内分类来制定完整的一般界限；英国邱园皇家植物园；以及法国巴黎的国家自然历史博物馆。研究者和他的学生在拉丁美洲的实地工作，以及为研究生提供的植物标本室和实验室培训，以及与加州大学圣巴巴拉分校领先的植物形态学家雪莉·塔克博士的合作，都增加了这项工作的广泛影响。

0211054Ballard and TuckerGeneric distinctions and major subdivisions within many angiosperm families commonly hinge on characteristics of floral symmetry or architecture, and morphology of the reproductive structures themselves. This is true in the violet family (Violaceae), a moderate-sized family of angiosperms with a broad range of growth forms from large tropical forest canopy trees to fingernail-sized Andean puna rosettes. Predominately insect-pollinated, the family nevertheless boasts a wide range of floral and fruit morphologies on par with that in whole orders of other angiosperms. An apparently simple trend from actinomorphy to extreme zygomorphy, coupled with increasing elaboration of staminal nectaries in floral spurs, has figured heavily in generic concepts as well as in assignments to tribes and subtribes. Recent studies of generic relationships based on sequences of the trnL-F and rbcL chloroplast regions, however, reject the simplistic trend in floral symmetry and nectary development, as well as the current traditional classification based on this trend, revealing instead several independent origins of bilaterally symmetrical floral types with spurs from different radially symmetrical spurless lineages. Furthermore, pantropical Hybanthus, the third largest genus in the family, splinters into 7 separate groups distributed across the family, suggesting that its distinctive "landing platform" flower is a recurrent evolutionary syndrome. The second largest pantropical genus, Rinorea, is also substantially heterogeneous and non-monophyletic. The proposed research program will integrate comprehensive floral developmental investigations to clarify floral evolution; systematic studies of macro- and micromorphological characters, chromosome numbers, xylem anatomy and pollen morphology to reevaluate circumscriptions and distinctions of genera and diagnosable segregates; and inferences of generic relationships from chloroplast trnL-F spacer and rbcL gene regions to provide a robust molecular phylogenetic foundation on which to test relationships and develop a predictive classification. Complete generic circumscriptions using the new and pre-existing traits, and a new intrafamilial classification, will then be developed using examinations of key herbarium collections at the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis, Missouri; Royal Botanic Garden at Kew, England; and the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, France. Field work in Latin America by the investigator and his students and herbarium and laboratory training for graduate students add to the broader impacts of the work, as does collaboration with a leading plant morphologist, Dr. Shirley Tucker at UC-Santa Barbara.