Evolution and development of highly derived angiosperm families; vitaceae and cucurbitaceae

尽管利用分子技术的新工具在植物发育和系统分类学方面取得了巨大的进步，但仍存在几个关键问题：1)基于分子数据的系统发生（进化关系）是否与来自更经典形态学数据的系统发生（进化关系）一致？如果不能，这种矛盾能得到解决吗？2)发育，特别是花的发育，在系统学和系统发育同源性重建中扮演或应该扮演什么角色？3)目前的植物和营养发育的分子模型在高度非正统的发育中是否适用，比如葡萄科（Vitaceae）的叶片对生卷须（花序）和黄瓜科（葫芦科）的腋生复合体（卷须、腋芽、雌雄花序）？提出的研究目标是通过关注两个高度衍生的被子植物家族来解决上述问题；Vitaceae和葫芦科。我们提出的研究方法是观察比较发展，并将我们的发现与当前基于dna的系统发育相匹配。对于我们的发育研究，我们计划使用几种技术，包括扫描电子显微镜，外延照明光学显微镜（最近我们的实验室修改以增加聚焦深度），共聚焦激光显微镜和各种组织学方案，包括石蜡和塑料厚切片。我们对这项研究的方法是独特的，因为很少有实验室有形态学和发育数据库，以允许与分子系统发育进行广泛的比较。此外，我们的目标是与研究分子系统发育和分子发育的实验室合作，以建立一个具有充分代表性和尽可能完整的综合数据集。我们的方法的意义在于汇集尽可能多的比较数据，无论是发育的还是分子的，以构建一个健全的系统发育，并理解复杂的进化起源，如维塔科的卷须。

Although great strides have been made in plant development and systematics using the new tools available through molecular techniques, several key questions remain: 1) Are phylogenies (evolutionary relations) based on molecular data in agreement with those derived from more classical morphological data? And if not can the inconsistencies be resolved? 2) What role does or should development, in particular floral development, play in systematics and in reconstructing phylogenetic homologies? and 3) how applicable are current molecular models of floral and vegetative development to highly unorthodox developments such as leaf apposed tendrils (inflorescences) in the grape family (Vitaceae) and the axillary complex (tendril, axillary bud, male and female inflorescence) in the cucumber family (Cucurbitaceae)? The objectives of the proposed research are to address the above questions by focusing on two highly derived angiosperm families; the Vitaceae and the Cucurbitaceae. Our methodology in the proposed research is to look at comparative development and to match our findings with current DNA-based phylogenies. For our developmental studies we plan to use several techniques, including scanning electron microscopy, epi-illumination light microscopy (recently modified by our lab to increase depth of focus), confocal laser microscopy and various histological protocols including paraffin and plastic thick sectioning. Our approach to this research is unique since very few labs have the morphological and developmental databases to allow for extensive comparisons with molecular phylogenies. As well, our goal is to collaborate with labs working with molecular phylogenies and with molecular development in order to build up a combined data set that is fully representative and as complete as possible. The significance of our approach is to bring together as much comparative data as we can, both developmental and molecular, in order to construct a robust phylogeny and also to understand complex evolutionary origins such as the tendril in the Vitaceae.