DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Phylogenomics and biogeography of Vochysia, unraveling its tempo and mode of evolution

现代植物地理学中最有趣的问题之一与新热带植物多样性有关。该地区的物种数量之多曾被认为是由于热带雨林栖息地的古老性;然而，最近的研究表明，许多新热带开花植物群在过去的10-20年中已经多样化。最近发生的植物多样化的新热带区提出的问题，如为什么有这么多最近的物种形成事件和什么是生物和非生物因素的贡献。本研究的目的是调查Vochysia，一个严格的新热带组，是超多样性，广泛分布和相对年轻的地理和起源。通过促进更好地了解一组植物最近多样化的驱动因素，它将导致一般保护战略的改进，因为它将改善有关物种分布和多样化的知识。这项研究将是有价值的研究生和本科生的学术进步，是获得经验的生物信息学，数据分析，实验室和植物标本室协议。该项目旨在通过调查Vochysia多样化的克里思和模式来提高对新热带植物历史地理学的认识。将使用下一代测序和计算分析工具对该组进行系统发育重建，以提供系统发育树，用于调查Vochysia的进化历史。进化模式的分析将使用软件进行系统发育树定年校准，地理重建和生态位建模。从这些分析的结果将允许推论的相对重要性的vicariance与分散和生态位保守与分歧的地方性和稀有物种的Vochysia的重点。Vochysia多样化的克里思将涉及使用现代贝叶斯软件比较属内和不同生物群落的子分支之间的净多样化率，该软件模拟物种多样化的复杂动态。

One of the most intriguing questions in modern biogeography relates to Neotropical plant diversity. The high number of species in this region was once thought to be due to the antiquity of rainforest habitats; however, recent studies suggest that many Neotropical flowering plant groups have been diversifying in the last 10-20 my. Recent episodes of plant diversification in the neotropics raise questions such as why have there been so many recent speciation events and what were the contributing biotic and abiotic factors. This study aims to investigate the biogeography and origin of Vochysia, a strictly Neotropical group that is hyper-diverse, widely distributed and relatively young. By contributing to a better understanding about the drivers of recent diversification in a group of plants, it will lead to an improvement in general conservation strategies since it will improve knowledge about species distribution and diversification. This research will be valuable for the academic progress of a graduate student and an undergraduate student that is gaining experience in bioinformatics, data analysis, laboratory, and herbarium protocols. This project seeks to improve the knowledge of the historical biogeography of plants of the neotropics by investigating the tempo and mode of Vochysia diversification. A phylogenetic reconstruction of the group will be done using next generation sequencing and computational analytical tools to provide a phylogenetic tree for investigating the evolutionary history of Vochysia. The analysis of the mode of evolution will be done using software for phylogenetic tree dating calibration, biogeographical reconstruction, and niche modeling. Results from these analyses will allow inferences to be made about the relative importance of vicariance versus dispersal and niche conservatism versus divergence with an emphasis on endemic and rare species of Vochysia. The tempo of Vochysia diversification will involve comparing the net diversification rates within the genus and between sub-clades from different biomes using a modern Bayesian-based software that models the complex dynamics of species diversification.