U.S.-Australia Cooperative Research: Major Patterns in the Phylogeny of Flowering Plants: Floral Development and Relationships Among "Basal" Non-Magnoliid Dicotyledons

该奖项将支持菲尔德自然历史博物馆的Peter Crane博士和墨尔本大学的Andrew Drinnan博士之间的合作研究。开花植物是被子植物中最大的一类，约有500,000种。除了它们的绝对多样性外，被子植物对人类也具有重要的经济意义。被子植物也是许多或大多数陆地生态系统的主要组成部分。可以理解的是，植物学家一直对开发关于这一高度重要群体的起源和辐射的模型和推论感兴趣。在过去的二十年里，分子系统学等技术已经成为可能，可以对开花植物的起源和该群体的系统发育模型进行严格的科学调查。本研究的重点是详细研究被子植物黄杨科的花发育和形态，以澄清同源性和解决属水平上的关系。利用发展信息和其他数据，该项目将对黄杨科系统发育地位的对比假说进行批判性评估。此外，还将评估将黄杨科合并到或接近热带杜鹃花目对被子植物系统发育的更广泛的影响。由于热带杜鹃目在被子植物系统发育中占有中心地位，其结果将对解决开花植物主要类群之间的相互关系具有重要意义。该项目代表了澳大利亚科学家和美国科学家在结合他们对将要考虑的分类群和将要采用的技术的共同知识方面的出色合作。它们在流动植物的关键发育、形态和系统发育问题上的互补专业知识有可能极大地促进对开花植物起源和该类群的系统发育模式的了解。这也是关于开花植物主要类群之间相互关系的重要基础工作，并有可能促进使用新的分子方法来解决这些问题的更多研究。

This award will support cooperative research between Dr. Peter Crane of the Field Museum of Natural History and Dr.Andrew Drinnan of the University of Melbourne. The flowering plants comprise the largest group of plants, Angiospermae with approximately 500,000 species. In addition to their sheer diversity, the angiosperms are of great economic importance to humans. Angiosperms are also major elements of many or most terrestrial ecosystems. Understandably, botanists have been interested in developing models and inferences concerning the origin and radiation of this highly significant group. Within the past two decades, techniques such as molecular systematics have become available to permit rigorous scientific inquiry into the problem of the origin of the flowering plants and phylogenetic models of the group. The focus of this research is a detailed study of floral development and morphology in the angiosperm family Buxaceae to clarify homologies and resolve generic level relationships. Utilizing developmental information and other data, the project will critically assess contrasting hypotheses on the phylogenetic position of the Buxaceae. In addition, the broader implications for angiosperm phylogeny of incorporating the Buxaceae within, or close to, the Trochodendrales will be assessed. Because the Trochodendrales occupy a central position in angiosperm phylogeny, the results will have important consequences for resolving interrelationships among major groups of flowering plants. The project represents excellent collaboration between the Australian and the U.S. scientist in combining their joint knowledge of the taxa to be considered and the techniques to be employed. Their complementary expertise on critical developmental, morphological and phylogenetic issues of flowing plants has the potential to signifi- cantly advance knowledge of the origin of flowering plants and phylogenetic models of the group. This is also important fundamental work on interrelationships among major groups of flowering plants, and has the potential to stimulate additional research using new molecular approaches to these problems.