A cyber monograph and phylogeny of the papaya family, Caricaceae: Providing the context for the fully sequenced genome of a worldwide crop

Caricaceae是一个科，现有6属35种。33种分布在中美洲和南美洲，2种分布在非洲。生长形式从小的草本植物到高大的乔木，并且该物种出现在广泛的栖息地。这一提议产生的分子系统发育包括35个物种中的大多数，而加勒比科的姐妹组辣木科已经在系统发育上得到了很好的理解。在这里，我们建议(i)利用额外的DNA位点加强物种水平的系统发育，（ii）测试我们意想不到的发现，即Carica番木瓜是四个草本物种的墨西哥分支的姐妹，以及（iii）完成该家族的网络专著，即，将充分利用计算机和信息时代可用的数据库和工具进行系统处理。人们不断强调加快速度和使系统结果可自由获取的重要性，但利用现有的众多电子工具和数据库的专题工作却很少。这是由于专著系统研究所需的专业知识受到侵蚀。加勒比科非常适合于网络专著，因为直到最近，该科的世界专家V. Badillo（1920-2008）奠定了命名和分类基础。该项目的一个重要成果将是一个系统发育框架来解释完整的番木瓜基因组和番木瓜科植物性染色体的进化。

Caricaceae are a family of 35 species in currently six genera. Thirty-three species occur in Central and South America, two in Africa. Growth forms range from small herbs to tall trees, and the species occur in a wide range of habitats. A molecular phylogeny generated for this proposal includes most of the 35 species, and the Caricaceae sister group, the Moringaceae, is already well understood phylogenetically. Here we propose to (i) strengthen the species-level phylogeny with additional DNA loci, (ii) test our unexpected discovery that Carica papaya is sister to a Mexican clade of four herbaceous species, and (iii) complete a cyber monograph of the family, i.e., a systematic treatment that will take full advantage of databases and tools available in the computer and information age. The importance of speeding up and making freely accessible systematic results is constantly being stressed, yet there is a dearth of monographic work using the numerous e-tools and databases now in existence. This is due to an erosion of the expertise required for monographic systematic research. Caricaceae are well suited for a cyber monograph because of the nomenclatural and taxonomic basis laid by V. Badillo (1920-2008), the World expert on the family until recently. An important outcome of this project will be a phylogenetic framework for interpreting the complete papaya genome and the evolution of sex chromosomes in the Caricaceae.