DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Evolution of floral symmetry in the petaloid monocot order Zingiberales

在切尔西·d·斯佩克特博士的指导下，加州大学伯克利分校获得了一项奖项，该奖项旨在研究几种基因在一个植物家族（包括生姜、香蕉和天堂鸟植物）中影响开花和花朵对称的作用。该资助将提高Madelaine Bartlett博士论文的研究水平。开花植物的多样性惊人，而花对称的变化被认为是这种多样性进化的驱动力之一。本研究的目的是研究cyc样基因和B类和C类MADS盒子基因两个候选基因家族在单子叶植物Zingiberales（约2000种）花对称的形成和完善中的作用。在花的对称性上发生了多次变化，使其成为研究这一重要生态性状进化的理想目。据推测，基因序列、数量和表达会随着序列对称性的变化而发生变化。现代系统发育方法将用于研究这些基因家族的进化史。它们在不同对称发育花中的表达模式将通过原位杂交和RT-PCR进行评估。了解开花植物多样性如何进化的遗传学对于决定现在和将来如何保护和维持这种多样性至关重要。本研究是第一个将花发育知识扩展到花瓣状单子叶的研究，也是第一个将这一研究扩展到热带单子叶的研究。通过这项研究项目的继续，至少另外两名本科生将接受分子实验室工作和科学过程的培训。这项研究还将通过出版物、在科学会议上的演讲和一个包含将分子遗传学研究扩展到非模型系统的程序和协议的网站来传播知识。

An award has been made to the University of California at Berkeley under the direction of Dr. Chelsea D. Specht to study the role several genes affecting flowering and floral symmetry in a family of plants that includes gingers, bananas, and the bird of paradise plant. The grant will improve the doctoral dissertation research of Madelaine Bartlett. Flowering plants are astoundingly diverse, and changes in floral symmetry are thought to have been one driving force in the evolution of this diversity. The goal of the proposed research is to investigate the role of two candidate gene families, the CYC-like genes and the B and C class MADS box genes, in the initiation and elaboration of floral symmetry in the monocotyledonous order Zingiberales, which contains about 2,000 species. Multiple changes in floral symmetry have occurred in the Zingiberales, making it an ideal order in which to study the evolution of this important ecological trait. It is hypothesized that there will be shifts in gene sequence, number and expression accompanying shifts in symmetry across the order. Modern phylogenetic methods will be used to investigate the evolutionary history of these gene families. Their expression patterns in developing flowers with differing symmetries will be assessed using in situ hybridization and RT-PCR.Understanding the genetics of how flowering plant diversity evolved is critically important in deciding how to protect and maintain such diversity now and in the future. This study is one of the first to expand our knowledge of floral development to the petaloid monocots, and the first to expand this research to tropical monocots. Through the continuation of this research project, at least two additional undergraduate students will be trained in molecular lab work and the scientific process. This research will also result in the dissemination of knowledge through publications, presentations at scientific meetings, and a website with procedures and protocols for extending molecular genetic research to non-model systems.