EAPSI: Using Phylogeny Reconstruction to Examine Origin and Diversification of Beardless Iris

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Phylogenetic methods can aid for an understanding of evolutionary relationships. The goal of this research is to advance our understanding of systematic and biology of Asian Iris by creating a phylogenetic framework for taxonomic revision, and testing species divergence and dispersal in Iris. This research will focus on geographic origins and evolutionary relationships of Asian Iris. The purpose this search is to construct a robust phylogenetic analysis of series Chinensis and to resolve the placement of this series within subgenus Liminiris. Using a phylogenetic approach, we will examine geographic origins of series Chinensis, small irises that are distributed in Asia; China, Korea, and Japan. We proposed to investigate which Asian species should be included in series Chinensis; phylogenetic relationships among series Chinensis species; and the origin, dispersal, and diversification of the series in Asia. We will apply molecular marker to phylogenetic relationships and use these results to test hypotheses about geographic distribution. The work will be carried out under the supervision of Dr. Seung-Chul Kim, Professor and Curator, Department of Biological Sciences at the Sungkyunkwan University in South Korea.This research will focus on geographic origins and evolutionary relationships of Asian Iris. We propose to investigate which Asian species should be included in series Chinensis; phylogenetic relationships among series Chinensis species; and the origin, dispersal, and diversification of the series in South Korea. Nuclear and chloroplast DNA makers will be sequenced for phylogeny reconstruction using Maximum Likelihood and Bayesian Statistical methods. The resulting phylogeny will be used as a framework for testing hypothesis on patterns of geographic diversification.This award, under the East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes program, supports summer research by a U.S. graduate student and is jointly funded by NSF and the National Research Foundation of Korea.