DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Integrating genomic and paleobotanical data for phylogenetic and biogeographic reconstruction in the basal lamiid family Icacinaceae

众多植物群？约330科60属？分布于南美洲、非洲和澳大拉西亚的热带地区。这些复杂的现代分布模式表明热带生态系统的动态历史，涉及地质历史上主要热带地区之间频繁的生物交换。对广泛分布的热带种群进行详细的进化研究，可以大大揭示形成热带生物和生态系统全球分布模式的历史因素。然而，这些研究需要大量的化石证据来揭示多样化事件的时间和地点，而热带植物的化石记录是出了名的贫乏。Icacinaceae是一个泛热带的开花植物家族，包括大约140种木本藤本植物和树木，在热带群体中是独一无二的，因为它们有很好的化石记录，记录了广泛的地理和地质范围内的属的多样性。这使得Icacinaceae成为推断热带植物在整个热带地区扩张和多样化的更广泛的历史模式的一个很好的模型。该项目将把广泛的Icacinaceae化石记录与基于DNA的科中物种之间关系的研究相结合。结果将是一个全面的家庭图片？的进化历史，提供了重要的更广泛的影响，热带植物多样化和蔓延，以应对气候和地质变化，在过去的6500万年。此外，这项研究将解决精确的进化位置Icacinaceae的开花植物的生命树，这一直是模糊的，在以前的研究。该项目将把尖端的DNA测序技术与传统的形态学和古植物学方法相结合，为研究生、本科生和高中生提供多样化的培训机会。这里采用的综合方法也将作为未来研究的方法模型，旨在联合收割机DNA和化石证据的重建历史年表。这项研究的结果，这将在会议上传播，并在同行评议的出版物，将是有兴趣的热带生物学家和被子植物系统学家给予更广泛的重要性Icacinaceae了解热带植物地理学和形态进化模式的开花植物的生命树。

Numerous plant groups?approximately 330 families and 60 genera?have distribution patterns spanning the tropical regions of South America, Africa, and Australasia. These complex modern distribution patterns suggest a dynamic history for tropical ecosystems, involving frequent biotic exchange among major tropical regions over geologic history. Detailed evolutionary studies of widespread tropical groups can shed considerable light on the historical factors that have shaped the global distribution patterns of tropical organisms and ecosystems. However, such studies require extensive fossil evidence to reveal the timing and location of diversification events, and the fossil record of tropical plants is notoriously poor. The Icacinaceae, a pantropical family of flowering plants including approximately 140 species of woody vines and trees, are unique among tropical groups in that they have an excellent fossil record, documenting a diversity of genera across wide geographic and geologic ranges. This makes the Icacinaceae an excellent model for inferring broader historical patterns of tropical plant expansion and diversification across the tropics. This project will integrate the extensive fossil record of Icacinaceae with DNA-based studies of relationships among species in the family. The result will be a comprehensive picture of the family?s evolutionary history, offering important broader implications for tropical plant diversification and spread in response to climatic and geologic changes over the past ~65 million years. Additionally, this study will resolve the precise evolutionary placement of Icacinaceae in the flowering plant tree of life, which has been ambiguous in previous studies. This project will integrate cutting-edge DNA sequencing techniques with traditional morphological and paleobotanical approaches, providing a diversity of training opportunities for graduate, undergraduate, and high school students. The synthetic approach employed here will also serve as a methodological model for future studies aiming to combine DNA and fossil evidence for reconstructions of historical biogeography. The results of this research, which will be disseminated at meetings and in peer-reviewed publications, will be of interest to both tropical biologists and angiosperm systematists given the broader importance of Icacinaceae for understanding both tropical biogeography and patterns of morphological evolution across the flowering plant tree of life.