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项研究绿色植物进化的拨款。人类依靠绿色植物提供食物、住所、衣物，以及提供生命所必需的氧气。从生物学的角度来看，作为生命树上最古老和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，在这个系统中可以探索活着的有机体之间的相互关系，并探讨与地球上生命多样化有关的一些最重要和最有趣的问题。其中许多问题与基本的进化事件有关，例如生物体从单细胞计划向多细胞计划的转变，土地的殖民，以及不同生命周期模式的派生。因此，了解它们的进化史是NSF组装生命树计划的关键组成部分。这笔赠款是一个合作项目的一部分，该项目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首席研究人员，重点将是：1)解决绿色植物之间的主要多样化模式；2)调查与这些生物长期进化历史有关的问题；3)提供一个分析模型，适用于其他具有广泛进化历史的生物群体。该小组将着重开发新的分析方法，使其能够在多个尺度上进行分析，并使用来自不同来源的所有现有数据。以50-100种植物的基因组和结构为基础的坚实的关系骨干，代表着关键的深分枝谱系，将使以前和正在进行的对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的全基因组序列矩阵，并开发细菌人工染色体(BAC)核基因组文库；2)产生相同植物的一套全面的可比较的形态和超微结构数据；以及3)利用旨在允许跨研究扩展的方法，纳入来自绿色植物系统发育层级的推论。多项综合培训、教育和外联活动将使该研究小组的活动和进展不断向科学界和其他方面传播。查尔斯·奥凯利将监督整个项目。他还将主要负责收集和建立这项研究中绿藻的形态和超微结构数据的数据库。他将协助解释绿藻分子数据，并协助建立与项目有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.