AToL: COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: Resolving the Trunk of the Angiosperm Tree and Twelve of its Thorniest Branches

智力优势：开花植物（被子植物）是最大的（270,000种），最多样化，经济上最重要的绿色植物群。了解被子植物的起源、变异模式和相互关系是具有挑战性的。尽管取得了进展，但主要群体之间的关系仍然不清楚，主要子群体（例如，玫瑰和盟友）之间的关系也是如此。我们的多基因和基因组学方法针对12个问题群体和亚群体；他们的决议将澄清被子植物系统发育的框架。我们还将开发第一个全面的被子植物非dna数据库，并填充关键的形态特征。总之，我们的方法将为合作建立所有12000个被子植物属的树奠定基础。更广泛的影响：被子植物树将对包括生理学家、生态学家、古生物学家和基因组学家在内的比较生物学家有用。我们开发的植物学浏览器将提供一个信息学基础设施，将许多数据资源带到用户的桌面。被子植物形态库将有助于类群诊断、特征分布分析和化石研究。我们对博士后和学生的跨学科培训将强调招收少数民族。我们关于被子植物多样性的网站将对研究人员、K-12教师和学生有价值。我们将为生命之树网络项目构建页面，包括为K-12学生和教师设计的树屋。一个可移动的博物馆展览将突出我们对植物系统发育的理解的进展，并将分发给我们项目所代表的博物馆。我们将设计海报，详细介绍这棵被子植物树，并制作成光盘分发。此外，我们还将向当地公立学校进行宣传。

Intellectual Merit: Flowering plants (angiosperms) are the largest (270,000 species), most diverse, and economically most important group of green plants. Understanding the origin, patterns of variation, and relationships among angiosperms is challenging. Despite progress, relationships among major groups remain unclear, as do relationships within major subgroups (e.g., roses and allies). Our multigene and genomics approaches target 12 problematic groups and subgroups; their resolution should clarify the framework for angiosperm phylogeny. We also will develop the first comprehensive non-DNA database for angiosperms and populate it with key morphological features. Together, our approaches will lay groundwork for collaboratively building the tree of all 12,000 genera of angiosperms. Broader Impacts: The angiosperm tree will be useful to comparative biologists including physiologists, ecologists, paleobiologists, and genomicists. The Botany Browser we develop will provide an informatics infrastructure to bring many data resources to users' desktops. The Angiosperm MorphBank will facilitate group diagnosis, analyses of character distributions, and study of fossils. Our interdisciplinary training of postdoctoral fellows and students will emphasize recruitment of minorities. Our website on angiosperm diversity will be valuable to researchers, K-12 teachers, and students. We will construct pages for the Tree of Life Web Project including TreeHouses designed for K-12 students and teachers. A movable museum exhibit highlighting advances in our understanding of plant phylogeny will be distributed to museums represented in our project. Posters detailing the angiosperm tree will be designed and distributed and made available on CD. Additional outreach will be provided through presentations to local public schools.