Dissertation Research: Systematics of An Old Polyploid      Complex in the Genus Gaudichaudia (Malpighiaceae)
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With guidance from faculty adviser Dr. William Anderson,                   graduate student Steven Jessup of the University of Michigan is                 studying plants of the genus Gaudichaudia of the Malpighiaceae                  family, a group of flowering vines of the American tropics.                     Species in this group exhibit several different levels of                       chromosome doubling, called polyploidy, along with several                      apparent instances of hybridization between morphologically                     separate lineages, leading to both sterile and fertile                          intermediates.  The ability of polyploids to produce fertile                    hybrids between distantly related lineages, and for polyploid                   hybrids from different progenitors to cross and then backcross to               parental tetraploids, results in a genetically complex array of                 forms where clear morphological boundaries between species are                  blurred.                                                                             By using DNA restriction fragment markers and protein                      electrophoresis in combination with standard taxonomic methods,                 the researchers will identify and characterize species, and                     analyze ecological races in terms of geographic range and                       soil/climate distributions.  Using computer-aided methods of                    phylogenetic analysis, they will infer the origins and                          evolutionary history of taxa in this genus, and test the                        hypothesis that the group exhibits a pattern of polyploid cycles                of speciation through hybridization.  Polyploid cycles have                     received little attention, especially in tropical woody plants,                 yet the incidence of high chromosome numbers suggests extensive                 polyploid evolution in tropical taxa.  The new molecular methods                in use promise a breakthrough in our understanding of the                       prevalence and significance of polyploid evolution.
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{'Code': '1127', 'Text': 'Evolutionary Processes'}
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