Collaborative Research: Phylogeny and Floral Evolution of Malpighiaceae

金虎尾科（Malpighiaceae）是一个大的，祖先是新大陆开花植物家族，在过去的6000万年里，它已经在七个不同的场合独立地分散到旧大陆。新世界物种的独特的花形态包括油腺，它为传粉者提供花粉或花蜜以外的奖励。产生营养油的花朵也具有独特的双侧花对称性，这种对称性通过与专业油蜂授粉者的相互作用而保存了数百万年。相反，所有旧大陆的物种都有放射对称的规则花朵。本计画将借由制作约1300种金雀花科植物的形态学与分子遗传学资料，来探讨植物与传粉者共生的多样性。此外，研究人员还将调查新世界物种双边对称的早期遗传和发育基础，并为旧世界物种中规则花表型的趋同进化建立遗传和发育基础。这项对这一具有重要生态意义的大型热带植物群的研究将作为一个模型，以了解相似的遗传和发育机制是否正在推动花形的平行进化。该项目将培训一名博士后研究员、本科生和研究生，包括代表性不足群体的个人。 研究结果将通过一本关于Malphigiaceae的在线专着，以及通过针对马萨诸塞州剑桥内的小学和高中学生的短期课程进行传播。

Malpighiaceae is a large, ancestrally New World flowering plant family that has dispersed independently to the Old World on seven separate occasions during the past ~60 Myr. The distinctive floral morphology of New World species includes oil glands, which provide pollinators with rewards other than pollen or nectar. The flowers that produce nutrient oils also have a unique bilateral floral symmetry that has been conserved for millions of years via interactions with specialist oil-bee pollinators. All Old World species, in contrast, have regular flowers with radial symmetry. This project will investigate diversification in plant-pollinator mutualism within the family by producing a morphological and molecular phylogeny of ~1300 Malpighiaceae species. In addition, the researchers will investigate the early genetic and developmental basis of bilateral symmetry in the New World species and establish the genetic and developmental basis for the convergent evolution of regular flower phenotypes in the Old World species. This study of this large and ecologically important group of tropical plants will serve as a model to understand whether similar genetic and developmental mechanisms are driving the parallel evolution of flower shape. The project will train a post-doctoral researcher, undergraduate and graduate students, including individuals from under-represented groups. Research results will be disseminated through an online monograph on the Malphigiaceae, and through targeted short-courses for elementary and high school students within Cambridge, MA.