Floral evolution and biogeography in early diverging legume lineages

拟议的研究计划的重点是属于豆科（豌豆和豆类家庭），亚科Caesalpinioideae的热带树种的早期分歧谱系的进化和系统学。其目的是重建这个亚科的进化历史，并测试有关的花和营养形态，多样化和植物地理学的进化率的假设。豆科植物有近20，000种，是被子植物中第三大和经济上最重要的科之一。传统上，豆科植物被认为包括三个亚科，Caesalpinioideae，Mimosoideae和Papilionoideae。在这三个亚科中，云实亚科在分类学和遗传学上的研究最少。这些豆科植物的早期分支在其植物和营养形态上具有高度多样性，并广泛分布于世界各地，化石记录可追溯到始新世。它们还包括一些第一个分化的谱系，包括固氮物种。利用来自叶绿体和核基因组的分子数据，并建立在我们以前的工作中的亚科，我们将确定自然群体和确定属之间的关系。这将作为一个框架，建立一个新的，迫切需要的，分类系统的Caesalpinioideae。这种新的分类将使我们能够探索花和营养体进化的模式，植物地理模式和分子进化。化石将用于记录谱系的最低年龄，作为测试生物地理假设的历史点，并作为估计分类和分子多样化率的基础。这项拟议的研究是国际合作的核心，旨在研究这个鲜为人知但在生态学和分类学上重要的Legumanus早期分歧谱系中的关系。我们的作用是提供一个强有力的支持的花粉形态，木材解剖学，花的个体发育和在这个不同的类群的演化研究的目的比较的目的。

The proposed research program focuses on the evolution and systematics of early diverging lineages of tropical tree species belonging to the family Leguminosae (pea and bean family), subfamily Caesalpinioideae. The objectives are to reconstruct the evolutionary history of this subfamily and to test hypotheses concerning the evolution of floral and vegetative morphology, rates of diversification and biogeography. With nearly 20,000 species, the Leguminosae is the third largest and economically one of the most important of angiosperm families. Traditionally the Leguminosae is considered to comprise three subfamilies, the Caesalpinioideae, Mimosoideae and Papilionoideae. Of the three subfamilies, the Caesalpinioideae has been the most poorly studied taxonomically and phylogenetically. These early offshoots of the Leguminosae are highly diverse in their floral and vegetative morphology and widely distributed in the world with a fossil record that dates to the Eocene. They also encompass some of the first diverging lineages that include species which fix nitrogen. Using molecular data derived from the chloroplast and nuclear genomes, and building upon our previous work in the subfamily, we will identify natural groups and determine relationships among genera. This will serve as a framework for establishing a new, badly needed, classification system for the Caesalpinioideae. This new classification will allow us to explore patterns of floral and vegetative evolution, biogeographic patterns, and molecular evolution. Fossils will be used to document minimum ages of lineages, as historical points for testing biogeographical hypotheses, and as a basis for estimating taxonomic and molecular diversification rates. The proposed research is central to an international collaboration aimed at examining relationships in this poorly known, yet ecologically and taxonomically important, early diverging lineages of the Leguminosae. Our role is to provide a strongly supported phylogeny for comparative purposes with the aim of studying the evolution of pollen morphology, wood anatomy, floral ontogeny and nodulation in this diverse group of taxa.