ATOL: Collaborative Research: Deep Green Plant Phylogenetics: Novel Analytical Methods for Scaling Data from Genomics to Morphology

毕格罗海洋科学实验室的查尔斯·j·奥凯利博士获得了一笔资金，用于研究绿色植物的进化。人类依靠绿色植物获得食物、住所、衣服，并提供生命所必需的氧气。从生物学的角度来看，作为生命之树中最古老、最多样化的分支之一，绿色植物提供了一个无与伦比的系统，在这个系统中，我们可以探索生物之间的相互关系，并解决一些关于地球上生命多样化的最重要、最有趣的问题。这些问题中有许多与基本的进化事件有关，例如有机体从单细胞向多细胞身体计划的转变，土地的殖民化以及不同生命周期模式的衍生。因此，了解它们的进化历史是美国国家科学基金会“组装生命之树”项目的关键组成部分。这项资助是一个合作项目的一部分，包括来自毕格罗海洋科学实验室、加州大学伯克利分校、南伊利诺伊大学、犹他州立大学、华盛顿大学和耶鲁大学的主要研究人员，重点将是：1)解决绿色植物多样化的主要模式；2)研究与这些生物漫长的进化史有关的问题；3)提供一种分析模型，该模型将适用于具有广泛进化历史的其他生物群体。该团队将强调开发新的分析方法，使其能够跨多个尺度进行分析，并使用来自异构来源的所有可用数据。基于50-100种植物的基因组和结构关系的坚实支柱，代表了关键的深分支谱系，将使以前和正在进行的更多植物的研究整合到绿色植物谱系的全面图景中。该项目的主要目标是：1)完成叶绿体和线粒体全基因组序列基质，建立细菌人工染色体（BAC）核基因组文库；2)为同一种植物提供一套完整的可比较的形态和超微结构数据；3)结合绿色植物系统发育等级的推断，使用旨在允许跨研究扩展的方法。多种综合培训、教育和推广活动将导致该研究小组的活动和进展不断传播到科学界和其他领域。查尔斯·奥凯利将监督整个项目。他还将主要负责收集本研究中绿藻的形态和超微结构数据并建立数据库。他将协助解释绿藻分子数据，以及制作与项目相关的网站和相关的传播工具。

A grant has been awarded to Dr. Charles J. O'Kelly of the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences to investigate green plant evolution. Humans rely on green plants for food, shelter, clothing, and for providing the oxygen that is essential to life. From a biological perspective and as one of the oldest and most diverse branches of the tree of life, green plants provide an unparalleled system in which to explore interrelationships of living organisms and to approach some of the most significant and intriguing questions concerning the diversification of life on earth. Many of these questions relate to fundamental evolutionary events, such as the transition of organisms from single-celled to multicellular body plans, the colonization of land, and the derivation of different life-cycle modes. Accordingly, understanding their evolutionary history is a critical component in the NSF's Assembling the Tree of Life program. This grant is part of a collaborative project, including principal investigators from the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, the University of California at Berkeley, Southern Illinois University, Utah State University, the University of Washington, and Yale University, the focus will be: 1) resolving the primary pattern of diversification among green plants; 2) investigating questions relating to the long evolutionary history of these organisms; 3) providing a model for analysis that will be applicable to other groups of organisms with extensive evolutionary histories. The team will emphasize the development of novel analytical methods that make it possible to conduct analyses across multiple scales and to use all of the available data from heterogeneous sources. A solid backbone of relationships based on genomes and structure for 50-100 plants, representing the critical deep-branching lineages, will enable the integration of previous and ongoing studies of many more plants into a comprehensive picture of green plant genealogy. The primary objectives of the project are: 1) complete a matrix of whole genome sequences for chloroplasts and mitochondria, and develop Bacterial Artificial Chromosome (BAC) nuclear genome libraries; 2) produce a comprehensive set of comparable morphological and ultrastructural data for the same plants; and 3) incorporate inferences from across the phylogenetic hierarchy in green plants using methods designed to permit scaling across studies. Multiple integrated training, educational and outreach activities will result in continual dissemination of the activities and progress of this research group to the scientific community and beyond. Charles O'Kelly will oversee the entire project. He will also have primary responsibilities for collecting and databasing morphological and ultrastructural data for the green algae included in this study. He will assist in the interpretation of green algal molecular data, and in the generation of project-associated websites and related dissemination tools.