Systematics and Phylogeny of Arabidopsis

拟南芥，俗称鼠耳水芹，是欧洲芥菜科的一种小杂草，属于卷心菜、甘蓝、西兰花、花椰菜和萝卜，已成为经典生物学和分子生物学基础研究的模式开花植物。数以千计的生物学家正在研究这种有机体，以了解许多基本的生物过程。全世界对鼠耳菜的兴趣源于这样一个事实，即这种生物在开花植物中拥有最小和最简单的基因组，世代时间为4到6周，而且体积小到30厘米高(因为它的体积小，可以在一个小盆子里种植几十个，在一个小房间里种植数十万个)。这些特性和其他几种特性使这种植物成为生物学基础研究的理想之选。然而，关于拟南芥的最基本的信息，特别是关于其近亲、限制、物种数量以及其单个物种的各个方面的信息几乎是不存在的。为了了解这种生物的起源，迫切需要对该属进行基本的系统研究，并提供所有类群的活材料。这项拟议的研究就是为了解决这些问题。将在中亚地区进行密集的野外工作，特别是中国、巴基斯坦、印度、阿富汗、哈萨克斯坦、吉尔吉斯斯坦和塔吉克斯坦的邻近部分，这些地区代表了该属最大多样性的中心。种子收藏将存放在俄亥俄州立大学的拟南芥生物资源中心，在那里它们将向世界各地的植物学家提供。将以80多种草本植物的标本为基础进行广泛的系统研究，并将对拟南芥及其近缘植物的形态、生殖生物学、细胞学、种子解剖和化学进行详细的研究。拟议的为期两年的赠款将导致对拟南芥进行系统研究，并将为科学界提供包括鼠耳芹在内的各种物种亟需的活材料。

Arabidopsis thaliana, or commonly known as mouse-ear cress, a small European weed of the mustard family, to which the cabbages, Brussel sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, and radishes belong, has become the model flowering plant in basic studies of classical and molecular biology. Thousands of biologists are working on this organism to understand many fundamental biological processes. Worldwide interest in mouse-ear cress stems from the fact that this organism has the smallest and simplest genome among flowering plants, has a generation time of four to six weeks, and has a small size to 30 cm high (because of its small size, dozens can be grown in a small pot and several hundred thousands in a small room). These and several other attributes make the plant ideal for basic studies in biology. Yet the very basic information on Arabidopsis, especially on its nearest relatives, limits, number of species, and various aspects of its individual species is almost non-existent. To understand the origin of this organism, basic systematic studies on the genus are urgently needed, and living material of all taxa should be made available. The proposed research is designed to address these very problems. Intensive field work will be done in central Asia, especially the adjacent portions of China, Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, which represent the center of greatest diversity of the genus. Seed collections will be deposited at the Arabidopsis Biological Resource Center at Ohio State, where they will be made available to botanists worldwide. Extensive systematic studies based on herbarium material from more than 80 herbaria will be conducted, and detailed studies on the morphology, reproductive biology, cytology, seed anatomy, and chemistry of Arabidopsis and its relatives will be done. The proposed two-year grant will result in a systematic study of Arabidopsis and will provide the scientific community with much needed living material of the various species including mouse-ear cress.