RUI: Fine scale phylogenetic relationships in Lycieae (Solanaceae): A multilocus approach for understanding biogeography, polyploidy, and reproductive evolution

番茄家族(茄科)包括许多野生物种，这些物种是了解植物如何繁殖、是否杂交以及它们的基因组如何进化的极佳模式。本项目将开发新的遗传标记，并利用它们来研究番茄近缘种系中的物种和种群之间的进化关系。枸杞分布于世界各地，并进化出许多复杂的繁殖方式。该项目结合了田间和实验室的研究，以发现世界各地物种分布的历史和开花植物有性策略的演变。因此，这项工作使用了为经济上重要的番茄家族开发的基因组资源，并将这些资源应用于进化研究。这项研究还将为本科教育和培训做出重大贡献，让处于职业生涯不同阶段的不同学生参与该项目的所有方面，包括旅行收集植物材料和参加专业会议以展示他们的研究。学生将接受分子方法和序列分析、种群遗传学、系统发育系统学和生殖进化方面的培训。将为为高中科学教师提供分子生物学、系统学和基因组学培训的暑期项目以及阿默斯特学院的课程开发做出贡献。

The tomato family (Solanaceae) includes many wild species that are excellent models for understanding how plants reproduce, whether they hybridize, and how their genomes evolve. This project will develop new genetic markers and use them to study evolutionary relationships among species and populations in the tomato relative Lycium. Lycium is distributed throughout the world and has evolved many complex ways of breeding. This project combines studies in the field and in the lab to discover the history of species distributions worldwide and the evolution of sexual strategies in flowering plants. This work thus uses genomic resources developed for the economically important tomato family applies those to an evolutionary study. This research will also contribute significantly to undergraduate education and training by involving diverse students at various stages of their careers in all aspects of the project, including travels to collect plant materials and attendance to professional meetings to present their research. Students will be trained in molecular methods and sequence analysis, population genetics, and phylogenetic systematics and reproductive evolution. Contributions will be made to summer programs that provide training in molecular biology, systematics and genomics for high school science teachers, as well as to curricular development at Amherst College.