Collaborative Research: RUI SG: Evolutionary relationships and systematics of riverweeds (Podostemaceae)

水苋科（Podostemaceae）是最大的水生开花植物科，为许多水生动物提供了重要的栖息地和食物来源。 在估计的300种河草中，有许多分布狭窄，不完全了解，家族内的谱系关系也不确定。 该项目将使用DNA序列数据对河草之间的系谱关系进行首次全科估计，并更好地了解关系，形态变异，并将澄清存在的不同物种的数量。该项目将为本科生提供广泛的实地和实验室研究培训机会，包括分子生物学，植物结构分析，数据库开发和管理，以及位于康涅狄格州和肯塔基州的两个初级本科院校的分类学。该项目产生的DNA序列数据将通过可供公众查阅的数据库传播，新收集的植物标本将存放在自然历史博物馆，该项目将对显花植物Podostemaceae科进行分子系统学和系统发育分析，并编写Apiniagia属（Podostemaceae）分类学专著。Podostemaceae物种表现出高的表型可塑性，并具有高度修饰的生长形式，这两者都有助于分类混乱。该项目将利用通过高通量DNA测序获得的形态学数据和分子数据，以新热带类群为重点，收集该家族的良好样本和强大的系统发育。将从整个叶绿体基因组和选择线粒体和核基因座收集分子数据。这将被用来限制所有新热带属的Podostemaceae，了解收敛模式的形态演化，并测试的假设，新热带Podostemoideae分支的分布在很大程度上是由主要的河流捕获事件在新生代解释。利用系统发育分析的结果，结合形态学调查，将产生一个Apiniagia属的分类专著。本属是最大的，最复杂的形态，和分类学上困难的属新热带区Podostemaceae。该专著将包括命名更新，形态描述和分类检索表，以及新开发的在线资源，以广泛传播结果。该项目还将为系统学社区提供一个新的免费工具，一个专为专题数据集的共生群平台的达尔文核心档案导出选项。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

The riverweed family (Podostemaceae) is the largest entirely aquatic family of flowering plants and provides important habitats and food sources for many aquatic animals. Many of the estimated 300 riverweed species are narrowly distributed and incompletely known, and genealogical relationships within the family are uncertain. This project will produce the first family-wide estimate of genealogical relationships among riverweeds using DNA sequence data, and a better understanding of relationships, morphological variation, and will clarify the number of different species that exist. This project will provide broad training opportunities for undergraduate students in both field and laboratory research, including molecular biology, plant structural analyses, database development and management, and taxonomomy at two Primarily Undergraduate Institutions located in Connecticut and Kentucky. DNA sequence data generated by the project will be disseminated via publicly accessible databases, and newly collected plant specimens will be deposited within natural history museums.This project will produce a molecular systematic and phylogenetic analysis of the flowering plant family Podostemaceae, and a taxonomic monograph of the genus Apiniagia (Podostemaceae). Podostemaceae species exhibit high phenotypic plasticity and have highly modified growth forms, both of which contribute to taxonomic confusion. This project will assemble a well-sampled and robust phylogeny of the family, with a focus on neotropical taxa, using morphological data and molecular data obtained via high throughput DNA sequencing. Molecular data will be collected from whole chloroplast genomes and select mitochondrial and nuclear loci. This phylogeny will be used to circumscribe all neotropical genera of Podostemaceae, understand convergent patterns of morphological evolution, and test the hypothesis that the distribution of the neotropical Podostemoideae clade is largely explained by major river capture events during the Cenozoic. Using the results of the phylogenetic analyses in combination with morphological investigations, a taxonomic monograph for the genus Apiniagia will be produced. This genus is the largest, most morphologically complex, and taxonomically difficult genus of neotropical Podostemaceae. The monograph will include nomenclatural updates, morphological descriptions, and taxonomic keys, in addition to newly developed online resources to broadly disseminate the results. This project will also produce a new, free tool for the systematics community, a Darwin Core Archive export option for the Symbiota platform specific to monographic data sets.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.