Collaborative Research: RUI SG: Evolutionary relationships and systematics of riverweeds (Podostemaceae)

河草科（Podostemaceae）是最大的全水生开花植物科，为许多水生动物提供重要的栖息地和食物来源。估计有300种河草，其中许多分布狭窄，不完全为人所知，而且家族内的家谱关系也不确定。该项目将利用DNA序列数据对河草之间的家谱关系进行首次全科估计，并更好地了解河草之间的关系、形态变化，并澄清存在的不同物种的数量。该项目将在康涅狄格州和肯塔基州的两所主要本科院校为本科生提供广泛的实地和实验室研究培训机会，包括分子生物学、植物结构分析、数据库开发和管理以及分类学。该项目产生的DNA序列数据将通过可公开访问的数据库传播，新收集的植物标本将存放在自然历史博物馆内。本项目将完成开花植物Podostemaceae的分子系统和系统发育分析，以及Apiniagia属（Podostemaceae）的分类专著。足茎科物种表现出高度的表型可塑性和高度修饰的生长形式，这两者都导致了分类混乱。该项目将利用形态学数据和通过高通量DNA测序获得的分子数据，对该家族进行充分采样和健全的系统发育，重点关注新热带分类群。分子数据将从整个叶绿体基因组中收集，并选择线粒体和核位点。这一系统发育将被用来界定所有新热带的Podostemaceae属，理解形态进化的趋同模式，并验证新热带Podostemoideae分支的分布在很大程度上是由新生代主要的河流捕获事件解释的假设。利用系统发育分析的结果，结合形态学调查，将制作一个尖刺属的分类学专著。本属是新热带豆科中最大、形态最复杂、分类困难的属。该专著将包括命名更新、形态描述和分类学关键字，以及新开发的在线资源，以广泛传播结果。该项目还将为系统学社区提供一个新的、免费的工具，这是一个针对Symbiota平台的达尔文核心档案导出选项，专门用于专题数据集。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The riverweed family (Podostemaceae) is the largest entirely aquatic family of flowering plants and provides important habitats and food sources for many aquatic animals. Many of the estimated 300 riverweed species are narrowly distributed and incompletely known, and genealogical relationships within the family are uncertain. This project will produce the first family-wide estimate of genealogical relationships among riverweeds using DNA sequence data, and a better understanding of relationships, morphological variation, and will clarify the number of different species that exist. This project will provide broad training opportunities for undergraduate students in both field and laboratory research, including molecular biology, plant structural analyses, database development and management, and taxonomomy at two Primarily Undergraduate Institutions located in Connecticut and Kentucky. DNA sequence data generated by the project will be disseminated via publicly accessible databases, and newly collected plant specimens will be deposited within natural history museums.This project will produce a molecular systematic and phylogenetic analysis of the flowering plant family Podostemaceae, and a taxonomic monograph of the genus Apiniagia (Podostemaceae). Podostemaceae species exhibit high phenotypic plasticity and have highly modified growth forms, both of which contribute to taxonomic confusion. This project will assemble a well-sampled and robust phylogeny of the family, with a focus on neotropical taxa, using morphological data and molecular data obtained via high throughput DNA sequencing. Molecular data will be collected from whole chloroplast genomes and select mitochondrial and nuclear loci. This phylogeny will be used to circumscribe all neotropical genera of Podostemaceae, understand convergent patterns of morphological evolution, and test the hypothesis that the distribution of the neotropical Podostemoideae clade is largely explained by major river capture events during the Cenozoic. Using the results of the phylogenetic analyses in combination with morphological investigations, a taxonomic monograph for the genus Apiniagia will be produced. This genus is the largest, most morphologically complex, and taxonomically difficult genus of neotropical Podostemaceae. The monograph will include nomenclatural updates, morphological descriptions, and taxonomic keys, in addition to newly developed online resources to broadly disseminate the results. This project will also produce a new, free tool for the systematics community, a Darwin Core Archive export option for the Symbiota platform specific to monographic data sets.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.