DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Phylogeny and Biogeography of the Vitaceae Inferred from the Morphology of Extant and Fossil Taxa

葡萄科（Vitaceae）包括700多个种类，约15个属。 大多数成员是木本藤本植物，是森林中重要的生态组成部分。 该家族作为葡萄、葡萄干、果汁和葡萄酒的来源，在经济上很重要。 尽管它很受欢迎，但家庭内部的系统发育关系并没有完全解决。 在许多第三纪地层（6500万年前到最近）中发现了Vitaceous化石;这些化石可以提供关于这个家族过去历史的宝贵信息，也有助于我们了解这个家族的起源。 现代葡萄科分布于世界各地，有几个区域特有属和间断属。 化石表明，这些属中的许多以前发生在它们目前的分布区之外。 这种分布格局的变化是由于气候，环境，扩散，灭绝和物种形成的持续相互作用。 来自不同地质年代的化石可以帮助我们重建这段复杂的历史。在作为化石保存的各种器官中，这个科的种子提供了一些最可靠的分类识别特征。 在这个家庭的种子的初步形态调查表明，有独特的种子功能，为每个现存的属，这表明化石种子可以确定的属的水平与信心。然而，取样最初仅限于每个属的几个物种，为了准确鉴定，仍然需要对葡萄科进行更彻底的种子调查。 形态系统发育分析将进行推断化石和现存物种之间的关系。 将从仔细取样的植物标本中对整个植物的详细形态特征（包括花和营养特征以及种子形态）进行评分，以将种子特征置于更广泛的系统发育背景中，并提供更全面的形态分析。 包括化石和现存物种在内的基于形态特征的物种起源将与其他研究小组正在进行的分子数据进行比较。化石数据和分子数据一起可以提供关于一组密切相关的物种起源时间的信息;可以从化石地点估计过去的气候/环境;可以从所得到的物种发生推断出随时间的特征变化。 所有这些，当纳入和仔细解释，将提供新的见解，葡萄家族的历史。该项目将为女科学家Iju（Judy）Chen提供博士培训。 本研究结果可作为进化生物学教学中的植物实例。 数字化的化石和现存的种子图像可以用于博物馆展览。 种子图像也将在网上发布，以进一步识别化石。 生成的形态特征矩阵将被提交到适当的网站，以促进进一步的相关研究。 将参观世界各地的一些博物馆和植物标本馆，通过这些博物馆和植物标本馆可以建立合作伙伴关系，以促进进一步的科学研究和信息交流。

0608342Manchester and Chen The grape family (Vitaceae) contains more than 700 species, assigned to about 15 genera. Most of the members are woody vines and are ecologically important components in the forest. The family is economically important as the source of grapes, raisins, juice and wine. Despite its popularity, the phylogenetic relationships within the family are not fully resolved. Vitaceous fossils are known from numerous Tertiary beds (65 million years ago to recent); these fossils can provide valuable information on the past history of this family and also help with our understanding of the phylogeny of this family. Modern Vitaceae have a worldwide distribution with several regionally endemic and disjunct genera. Fossils indicate that many of these genera formerly occurred outside of their current distribution area. This change of distribution pattern is due to continuing interaction of climate, environment, dispersal, extinction, and speciation. Fossils from various localities of different geologic ages can help us reconstruct this complicated history. Among the various organs preserved as fossils, the seeds of this family provide some of the most reliable characters for taxonomic recognition. A preliminary morphological survey of seeds in this family indicates that there are unique seed features for each extant genus, suggesting that fossil seeds may be identified to the generic level with confidence. However, the sampling was initially limited to a few species per genus and a more thorough seed survey for the grape family is still necessary for accurate identification. Morphological phylogenetic analyses will be conducted to infer the relationships among fossil and extant species. Detailed morphological characters of the whole plant (including floral and vegetative characters as well as seed morphology) will be scored from carefully sampled herbarium specimens, to place the seed characters in a broader phylogenetic context and to provide a more comprehensive morphological analysis. The phylogeny including fossils and extant species based on morphological characters will be compared with that generated from molecular data, which is being done by other research groups. Fossil data and molecular data together can provide information on timing of the origin of a closely related group of species; past climate/environment can be estimated from the fossil localities; character change though time can be inferred from the resulted phylogeny. All of these, when incorporated and carefully interpreted, will give new insight to the history of the grape family. This project will provide for the PhD training of a woman scientist, Iju (Judy) Chen. The results of this study can serve as informative plant examples in the teaching of evolutionary biology. Digitized fossil and extant seed images can be used in museum exhibitions. Seed images will also be published online for further fossil identification. The morphological character matrix generated will be submitted to appropriate websites to facilitate further related research. A number of museums and herbaria worldwide will be visited, through which collaborative partnerships can be established to benefit further scientific research and exchange of information.