REU: Biosystematic Revision of the Polypodium vulgare Complex

现代分子生物学方法使蕨类植物系统学和进化生物学研究重新焕发活力。特别是，蛋白质同工酶和其他基因标记的分析现在使研究人员能够确定参与杂交事件和多倍体进化（通过染色体加倍的变化）的亲本物种。再加上新的技术调查叶绿体DNA的变化，这些方法为确定蕨类植物群的系统发育关系带来了很大的希望。堪萨斯大学的克里斯·豪夫勒博士继续开拓使用新的分子方法来解决蕨类生物学中长期存在的分类学问题。该项目将集中在一个环北方组的蕨类植物的水龙骨复合体。除了分子数据，孢子研究和叶片形状的新形态数据将用于界定自然界中的物种，鉴定杂交种群和多倍体，并测试多倍体杂交种是否很少或普遍存在。这些结果将允许更严格的比较模式和机制的物种形成蕨类植物与那些已知的显花植物。

Modern molecular methods are revitalizing the study of fern systematics and evolutionary biology. In particular, analyses of protein isozymes and other gene markers now enable researchers to determine the parental species involved in hybridization events and in polyploid evolution (change through chromosome doubling). Coupled with new techniques for investigating variation in chloroplast DNA, these approaches hold great promise for determining the phylogenetic relationships of groups of ferns. Dr. Chris Haufler of the University of Kansas continues to pioneer the use of new molecular methods in resolving long- standing taxonomic problems in fern biology. This project will focus on a circumboreal group of ferns of the Polypodium vulgare complex. In addition to molecular data, new morphological data from spore studies and leaf shape will be used to delimit species in nature, identify hybrid populations and polyploids, and test whether polyploid hybrids occur rarely or commonly. These results will then permit more rigorous comparisons of the modes and mechanisms of speciation in ferns with those known for flowering plants.