OPUS: Lamiales - a synthesis of phylogeny, biology, biogeography, and classification

拉米亚目植物群在全球具有重要意义，占所有已知开花植物的8%。该类群包括许多具有重要经济价值的物种，如薄荷、橄榄、芝麻、茉莉和许多在园艺上具有重要意义的植物。在这个项目中，奥姆斯特德博士将在他的实验室里综合25年来对这一全球多样化的大型开花植物群体的进化和系统学的研究。他还将把研究这些植物的大量文献整合到它们的形态、解剖学、细胞学、化学、分类学、古生物学和生态学中。该项目将使用公开数据库(GenBank)中的数据制作一棵系统发育树，并采用新的计算技术，以适应对~22,000个拉米亚目物种的超大数据集中进化关系的分析。奥姆斯特德博士还将出版一本关于这一群体的知识现状的书。在过去的20年里，发现的速度很快，特别是在拉米亚雷斯地区，这意味着常见的植物学参考著作已经过时了。这使得研究人员、教育工作者、农业科学家和其他人很难找到关于这一组植物多样性的一系列主题的准确信息。通过这项研究产生的大规模进化树将使人们能够更彻底地了解一个全球重要植物类群的多样性，汇编关于拉米亚目植物的文献将使研究人员、种植者和教育工作者能够概述这一类群的多样性和生物学，并为那些想要更深入了解的人进入文献。

The plant group Lamiales is globally important, representing 8% of all known flowering plants. The group includes numerous species of economic importance such as the mints, olives, sesame, jasmine, and many horticulturally important plants. In this project, Dr. Olmstead will synthesize 25 years of research in his lab on the evolution and systematics of this large and globally diverse flowering plant group. He will also integrate the extensive literature on these plants from research into their morphology, anatomy, cytology, chemistry, taxonomy, paleontology, and ecology. The project will produce a phylogenetic tree that will use data from publicly available databases (GenBank) and employ new computational techniques to accommodate the analysis of evolutionary relationships in the very large datasets of the ~22,000 Lamiales species. Dr. Olmstead will also produce a book on the present state of knowledge on this group. The rapid pace of discovery over the past two decades, particularly in the Lamiales, has meant that common botanical reference works are out of date. This has made it difficult for researchers, educators, agricultural scientists, and others to find accurate information on a range of topics for the diversity of plants in this group. The large-scale evolutionary tree produced by this research will permit a more thorough understanding of the diversification of a globally important plant group, and compiling the literature on Lamiales will permit researchers, growers and educators both an overview of the diversity and biology of this group and entrée into the literature for those who want a deeper understanding.