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

河草是开花植物中最大的纯水生植物家族，为许多水生动物提供了重要的栖息地和食物来源。在估计的300种河藻中，许多种类的分布范围很窄，而且还不完全为人所知，而且该科内部的谱系关系也不确定。该项目将首次使用DNA序列数据对河草之间的家系关系进行全科范围的估计，并更好地了解关系、形态变异，并将澄清存在的不同物种的数量。该项目将为康涅狄格州和肯塔基州两所主要本科院校的本科生提供广泛的实地和实验室研究方面的培训机会，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序列数据将通过公众可访问的数据库发布，新收集的植物标本将保存在自然历史博物馆中。该项目将产生开花植物科的分子系统和系统发育分析，以及Apiniagia属(Podostemaceae)的分类专著。狼毒草科植物表现出很高的表型可塑性和高度改良的生长方式，这两者都造成了分类学上的混乱。这个项目将利用通过高通量DNA测序获得的形态数据和分子数据，汇编一个样本充足和强大的该科系统发育图，重点放在新热带类群上。分子数据将从整个叶绿体基因组中收集，并选择线粒体和核基因座。这一系统发育将被用来划分Podostemaceae的所有新热带属，了解形态进化的趋同模式，并检验新热带Podostemoideae分支的分布在很大程度上是由新生代期间的主要河流捕获事件解释的假设。利用系统发育分析的结果，结合形态研究，将产生一本关于蜜蜂属的分类专著。本属是新热带Podostemaceae中最大、形态最复杂、分类最困难的属。除了新开发的在线资源以广泛传播结果外，该专著还将包括命名更新、形态描述和分类检索表。这个项目还将为系统学社区提供一个新的免费工具，一个针对专题数据集的Symbiota平台的达尔文核心档案导出选项。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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.