Poster: Comparative Genomics

Abs # 915: Toward resolution of the fuzzy nodes in green plant phylogeny

Presenter:	Mandoli, Dina F., mandoli@u.washington.edu
Authors	Mandoli, Dina F. (A)   Olmstead, Richard G (A)   Mishler, Brent  (B)   Boore, Jeffrey  (B)   Smith, Alan  (B)   Renzaglia, Karen  (C)   Wolf, Paul  (D)   Donoghue, Michael  (E)   O'Kelley, Charley  (F)
Affiliations:	(A): Unviersity of Washington (B): University of California, Berkeley (C): Southern Illinois University at Carbondale (D): Utah State University (E): Yale University (F): Bigelow Laboratories for Ocean Sciences
Web Site:	http://faculty.washington.edu/mandoli

We are funded to resolve the primary pattern of evolutionary diversification among green plants, and to establish a model for doing so that will be applicable to other groups of organisms with long evolutionary history. To achieve this goal we will 1) complete a matrix of whole genome sequences for chloroplast and mitochondria and develop either nuclear or organellar bacterial artificial chromosome, BAC, libraries for about 50 representatives of the critical deep-branching lineages of green plants; 2) produce a comprehensive set of comparable morphological and ultrastructural data for these same taxa; 3) incorporate inferences from across the phylogenetic hierarchy in green plants using methods designed to permit scaling across studies. We shall indicate how this work will link to other research being conducted on green plants and various scales, especially the concatenation of our data sets with theirs. We will present the fuzzy nodes we have chosen to resolve and discuss our choices of taxa in this preliminary report. Funded by NSF's Tree of Life Program, 2002-2006, DEB #0228655 (lead institution), #228432, #0228679, #0228729, #0228660, #0228576.