Systematics and Geographic Relations of Phlox L. (Polemoniaceae)

0089656Ferguson和Patterson北美的福禄考属（Polemoniaceae），约有64种，几十年来一直是许多生态学和进化研究的对象，但该群体的分类学依赖于一本50年前的专著，该专著是在系统发育关系的清晰，明确的分析方法可用之前编写的。堪萨斯州立大学的卡罗琳·弗格森博士和她在弗朗西斯科州立大学的同事罗伯特·帕特森博士正在研究该属所有物种的分子（DNA）和形态学变异模式，以便为该组构建系统发育树，从而研究授粉关系、生活史、地理迁移和范围以及多倍体和杂交的进化问题。福禄考是该科中最大的属，像该科中所有温带属一样，在北美西部有其多样性中心。目前正在努力对所有物种进行采样，对核和叶绿体DNA序列进行分子分析，并对叶绿体基因组进行限制性酶图谱分析，作为系统发育分析的突变特征来源。野外和植物标本馆研究也将增加新的形态学数据，并重新审查已发表的描述。杂交已在福禄考属的许多种复合体中报道，并已在pilosa和glaberrima组中得到证实，并将成为核和叶绿体联合分析的焦点。该属的分子和形态学研究相结合，将有利于正在进行的北美植物群项目的物种的主要分类处理的写作，作为一个额外的贡献。

0089656Ferguson and Patterson The North American genus Phlox (family Polemoniaceae), with about 64 species, has been the object of numerous ecological and evolutionary studies for many decades, but the taxonomy of the group has relied upon a now-50 year old monograph written before methods were available for clear, explicit analyses of phylogenetic relationships. Dr. Carolyn Ferguson at Kansas State University, with her colleague Dr. Robert Patterson at San Francisco State University, is studying molecular (DNA) and morphological patterns of variability in all the species of the genus, in order to construct a phylogenetic tree for the group, and thereby examine questions about evolution of pollination relationships, life history, geographic migration and ranges, and polyploidy and hybridization. Phlox is the largest genus in the family, and like all temperate genera in the family has its center of diversity in western North America. Efforts are underway to sample all of the species for molecular analyses of nuclear and chloroplast DNA sequences and for restriction-enzyme mapping of the chloroplast genome, as sources of mutational characters for phylogenetic analysis. Field and herbarium studies will also add new data from morphology, and for re-examination of published descriptions. Hybridization has been reported in a number of species complexes in Phlox, and has been confirmed in the pilosa and glaberrima groups, and will be the focus of combined nuclear and chloroplast analyses. The combined molecular and morphological studies of the genus will facilitate writing of major taxonomic treatments for the species for the ongoing Flora of North America project, as an additional contribution.