DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Systematics of Carex Section Ovales: The Challenge of Phylogeny at Fine Scales

威斯康星大学麦迪逊分校的保罗·贝里博士和安德鲁·希普先生获得了一笔资助，用于研究北美大陆最大的开花植物群——苔草属植物的部分进化历史。研究人员将使用几个层次的DNA分析来确定该属中广泛和精细尺度的关系。广泛的DNA序列研究将确定苔属植物中几个主要类群的关系，苔属植物是遍布美国、欧洲、中国和日本的重要湿地植物。精细尺度的分子研究将使用称为AFLP分析的DNA指纹工具来确定近亲物种之间的关系。除了阐明世界上最大和生态重要的开花植物类群之一之间的关系外，本研究还将评估和开发利用扩增片段长度多态性（AFLP）技术分析植物分子数据的新方法。这是一种基因指纹识别工具，但迄今为止，对植物AFLP结果的解释不如用于医疗或犯罪目的的动物DNA分析先进。更具体地说，本研究的目的是改进设计的技术，以确定正确的系谱在紧密结合的植物群体。因此，它们可以广泛应用于稀有和濒危物种的研究以及一般的保护生物学。

A grant has been awarded to Dr. Paul Berry and Mr. Andrew Hipp at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to study the evolutionary history of part of the largest group of flowering plants in the North American continent, namely the sedge genus Carex. The investigators will use several levels of DNA analysis to determine relationships at both broad and fine scales in the genus. Broad scale DNA sequence studies will determine the relationships of several major groups within Carex, which is an important wetland plant throughout the U.S., Europe, China, and Japan. Fine scale molecular studies will use DNA fingerprinting tools called AFLP analysis to determine relationships between closely related species. Besides clarifying the relationships within one of the world's largest and ecologically important groups of flowering plants, this study will evaluate and develop new methods for analyzing plant molecular data using the amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) technique. This is a sort of genetic fingerprinting tool, but the interpretation of plant AFLP results so far is less advanced than in animal DNA analysis for medical or criminal purposes. More specifically, this study aims to improve the techniques designed to determine the proper genealogy in closely knit groups of plants. As such, they could have broad applications for studies of rare and endangered species and conservation biology in general.