Dissertation Research: A Biosystematic Study of the Genus Hosta

在乔治亚大学的指导老师Samuel Jones博士的指导下，Myong Chung先生将研究韩国和日本的单子叶玉兰属物种的形态、染色体组成和遗传变异模式。玉兰属是具有重要园艺价值的玉兰百合的来源。在过去的几年中，该学生在韩国和日本收集了大量的种群，从这些和其他收集的样本将为植物标本室和实验室研究提供材料。物种之间的遗传屏障将通过一个普通花园实验中的人工杂交项目来评估，部分目的是测试物种是否在繁殖上是隔离的。电泳技术被用来测量物种之间的基因差异，集中在一个属中七个物种的一个子集上，估计在自然界中有20个左右的物种。原产于东亚的玉簪百合在分类上处于混乱状态，该项目将有助于为物种鉴定和推断各种形式之间的进化关系建立可靠的基础。

Under the guidance of faculty adviser Dr. Samuel Jones at the University of Georgia, Mr. Myong Chung will study the morphology, chromosome composition, and patterns of genetic variability in Korean and Japanese species of the monocot genus Hosta, source of the horticulturally important hosta lilies. Numerous populations in Korea and Japan have been collected by the student over the past few years, and samples from these and other collections will provide materials for herbarium and laboratory studies. Genetic barriers between species will be evaluated through a program of artificial hybridizations in a common-garden experiment, in part to test whether species are reproductively isolated. Electrophoretic techniques are being used to measure amounts of gene differences between species, focusing upon a subset of seven species in a genus estimated to have 20 or so species in nature. The hosta lilies, native to eastern Asia, are in a taxonomically confused condition, and the project will help establish a reliable basis for species identification and for inferring evolutionary relationships among the various forms.