EAPSI: Using Molecular Genomics to Analyze the Chloroplast Genome of Illicium

八角属是一种开花植物，在美国东南部大约有40种，墨西哥、大安的列斯群岛和东南亚。八角是公认的星形果实，这给集团的共同名称"星星茴香"。这种果实可以在茶、香、印度菜和中国菜中找到，一些八角属植物是达菲的重要前体。八角属是有花植物中最早分化的类群之一，是研究花发育和进化的重要模式植物。在这项研究中，将收集在美国无法获得的八角样本。将从样品中提取DNA，并使用下一代测序技术对叶绿体基因组进行测序。这项研究将与中国科学院植物研究所的Zhiduan Chen博士合作进行，允许在亚洲发现的30种八角属植物在美国无法获得。一个位于亚洲的旧世界，一个位于美国东南部的新世界。两个组内的物种分辨率都缺乏，留下了关于物种和地理历史之间界限的问题没有答案。分子工具正在开发用于解决这些问题和长期存在的分类问题。这项研究将使用测序的基因组进行比较，以确定最具信息量的非编码叶绿体区域在新的和旧的世界八角属物种，并使用最具信息量的区域来分析八角属内的进化关系。基因组序列将存入GenBank。NSF EAPSI奖是与中国科技部合作资助的。

Illicium is a genus of flowering plants comprising roughly 40 species across the Southeast of United States (U.S.), Mexico, Greater Antilles, and Southeast Asia. Illicium is recognized by its star-shaped fruits, which give the group the common name "star anise". The fruits are found in teas, incense, and Indian and Chinese cuisine, and some species of Illicium are producers of an important precursor of Tamiflu. Illicium is one of the earliest diverging lineages of flowering plants and is therefore an important model for the study of floral development and evolution. In this study samples of Illicium that are inaccessible in the U.S. will be collected. DNA from the samples will be extracted, and the chloroplast genomes will be sequenced using next-generation sequencing. This research will be conducted in collaboration with Dr. Zhiduan Chen at the Institute of Botany at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, granting access to 30 species of Illicium found in Asia that are not accessible in the U.S. Previous molecular studies supported recognition of two major groups: one Old World, located in Asia, and one New World, located in southeast U.S. Species resolution within both groups is lacking, leaving questions regarding boundaries between species and biogeographic history unanswered. Molecular tools are being developed for use to address these questions and long standing taxonomic issues. This research will use the sequenced genomes for comparison to identify the most informative noncoding chloroplast regions in species of New and Old World Illicium, and use the most informative regions to analyze the evolutionary relationships within Illicium. The genome sequences will be deposited into GenBank. This NSF EAPSI award is funded in collaboration with the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology.