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

Caricaceae是目前已知的6属35种植物。33个物种分布在中美洲和南美洲，两个物种在非洲。生长形式从小草本植物到高大的树木，这些物种出现在广泛的栖息地。根据这一建议生成的分子系统学包括了35个种中的大部分，而Caricaceae的姐妹群，Moringaceae，已经在系统发育上得到了很好的了解。在这里，我们建议(I)用额外的DNA基因座加强物种水平的系统发育，(Ii)检验我们出人意料的发现，即木瓜是墨西哥一个四种草本植物支系的姐妹，以及(Iii)完成一部关于该科的网络专著，即，一种系统的处理，将充分利用计算机和信息时代可用的数据库和工具。不断强调加快和提供免费的系统性成果的重要性，然而，利用现有的众多电子工具和数据库开展专题工作的情况却很少。这是由于专题系统研究所需的专业知识受到侵蚀。Caricaceae非常适合作为网络专著，因为直到最近还是该科的世界专家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解释番木瓜全基因组和Caricaceae性染色体进化的系统发育框架。

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.