Phylogeny, Biogeography, and Ecological Diversification of Subfamily Grevilleoideae (Proteaceae)

变形科（夏威夷坚果科）植物亚科Grevilleoideae（45属，约950种）对我们理解由古超大陆冈瓦纳大陆的分裂和其现在分离的碎片（包括南美洲，非洲，马达加斯加，印度，澳大利亚，新喀里多尼亚，新西兰）的后续变化所驱动的进化事件非常重要。这个家族的化石历史可以追溯到9000万年前，在冈瓦纳大陆的大部分碎片事件之前，这个亚家族在南半球的广泛分布（在所有主要的冈瓦纳大陆碎片上）通常可以用祖先在这些碎片上漂流来解释。这个亚科在澳大利亚尤其多样化。它包含了非洲大陆10个最大开花植物属中的3个；Grevillea是第三大植物（仅次于桉树和金合欢），Banksia拥有非洲大陆最广泛的化石记录。该亚科也是占据澳大利亚开阔的、被火扫过的植被的各种植物群的主要组成部分，这种植被类型在澳大利亚后冈瓦纳隔离后大幅扩张。然而，尽管具有重要意义，我们仍然没有一个很好的解决亚家族的系统发育（家谱）。佛罗里达州立大学的Austin Mast博士与澳大利亚的Peter Weston和Greg Jordan以及瑞典的David Cantrill的同事提出的这项研究将：(1)根据大约200个物种的核和叶绿体基因序列数据，构建一个绿芽亚科的骨干系统发育；(2)构建具有生物地理学、生态学和古植物学意义的8个焦点群的精细系统发育系统；(3)完善亚科分类和属、亚族、部落的划分；(4)在已知化石的范围内，利用许多复制断裂（澳大拉西亚和南美洲之间至少有6个）来测试冈瓦纳亚断裂对亚科的影响；(5)检验大范围干旱化对澳大利亚群落生态多样化的影响；(6)测试澳大利亚多样化的西南植物省和东部沿海地区之间至少6个重复断裂的年表，这些断裂被澳大利亚的中部沙漠隔开。该项目将为变形科的一个重要部分提供一个健全的系统发育框架，从而有助于研究冈瓦南和两热带（北半球和南半球）断裂的起源。PI为该家族维护一个在线关系数据库，该数据库存储有关研究人员和种植者的信息，包括当前公认的科学名称、图像、新闻项目和链接。该项目将扩展数据库，包括一个包含绝版文本的文献表、一个分类同义词表、一个地理分布表、一个化石分类群表，以及用于交流系统发育结果和分类划分变化的图形。这项研究的结果将以科学的和外行的术语来概括。该网站对研究人员、商业和业余爱好者、教育工作者和学生广泛有用。该项目将培训一名研究生和两名本科生掌握现代系统技术，并加强与澳大利亚、巴布亚新几内亚、新喀里多尼亚、斐济和瓦努阿图科学家的科学合作。

Plant Subfamily Grevilleoideae (45 genera, ca. 950 species) of the family Proteaceae (Macadamia Nut Family) is important to our understanding of evolutionary events driven by the fragmentation of the ancient supercontinent Gondwana and subsequent changes on its now isolated fragments (including South America, Africa, Madagascar, India, Australia, New Caledonia, New Zealand). The family's fossil history extends to 90 million years ago, prior to most fragmentation events in Gondwana, and the subfamily's far-flung distribution in the Southern Hemisphere (on all major Gondwanan fragments) is generally explained by rafting of ancestors on those fragments. The subfamily is particularly diverse in Australia. It contains 3 of that continent's 10 largest flowering plant genera; Grevillea is third largest (behind Eucalyptus and Acacia), and Banksia has that continent's most extensive fossil record. The subfamily is also a major component of the diverse flora occupying Australia's open, fire-swept vegetation - a vegetation type that expanded substantially after Australia's post-Gondwana isolation. However, despite the significance, we are still without a well-resolved phylogeny (family tree) for the subfamily. The proposed research by Dr Austin Mast at Florida State University, with colleagues Peter Weston and Greg Jordan in Australia and David Cantrill in Sweden, will (1) construct a backbone phylogeny for subfamily Grevilleoideae, relying upon nuclear and chloroplast gene sequence data for 200 or so species; (2) construct fine-scale phylogenies for 8 focal groups of biogeographical, ecological, and paleobotanical significance; (3) improve subfamily classification and circumscriptions of genera, subtribes, and tribes; (4) test the effects of the break-up of Gondwana on the subfamily using the many replicate disjunctions (at least 6 between Australasia and South America) within the context of known fossils; (5) test the effects of widespread aridification on ecological diversification in the Australian members; and (6) test the chronology of at least 6 replicate disjunctions between Australia's diverse Southwest Botanic Province and eastern coastal areas, separated by Australia's central deserts. The project will provide a robust phylogenetic framework for a significant portion of the Proteaceae, and thereby contribute to studies of the origin of Gondwanan and of amphitropical (Northern and Southern hemisphere) disjunctions. The PI maintains an online relational database for the family that stores information about researchers and growers, currently recognized scientific names, images, news items, and links. This project will expand the database to include a literature table with out-of-print texts, a taxonomic synonyms table, a geographic distribution table, a fossil taxa table, and graphics to communicate phylogenetic results and changes in taxonomic delimitations. The results of the research will be summarized in both scientific and layperson's terms. The site is broadly useful to researchers, commercial and hobby growers, educators, and students. The project will train one graduate and two undergraduate students in modern systematic techniques and strengthen scientific collaborations with scientists in Australia, Papua New Guinea, New Caledonia, Fiji, and Vanuatu.