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Publications - In the Press - Morphological Research - Informatics - Outreach

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Publications

Over 50 publications to date have stemmed for the AToL research

  • Moore, M.J., C. D. Bell, P.S. Soltis, and D. E. Soltis. 2007. Using plastid genomic-scale data to resolve enigmatic relationships among basal angiosperms. Proc. Nat. Acad.Sci. USA 104: 19363-19368.
  • Davis, C.C., M. Latvis, D.L. Nickrent, K.J. Wurdack, and D. A. Baum. 2007. Floral gigantism in Rafflesiaceae. Science 315:1812
  • Cantino, P.J., Doyle, S. Graham, W. Judd, R. Olmstead, D. E. Soltis, P.S. Soltis, and M. Donoghue. 2006. Phylogenetic analysis of the "ECE" (CYC/TB1) clade reveal duplications that predate the core eudicots. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA 103: 9101-9106.
  • Moore, M.J., A. Dhingra, P.S. Soltis, R. Shaw, W.G. Farmerie, K. S. Folta, and D. E. Soltis. 2006. Rapid and accurate pyrosequencing of angiosperm plastid genomes. BMC Plant Biology 6:17.
  • Jarvis, C.C., and K.J. Wurdack. 2004. Host-to-parasite gene transfer in flowering plants: phylogenetic evidence from Malpighiales. Science 305: 676-678.

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    Press Coverage

    International and domestic news

  • Miller, R. 2008. Peabody Museum exhibit explores the relationships that link all living creatures. The News-Times, Danbury, C.T.
  • Ruvinsky, J. 2008. Tiny origin of the world's largest flower, Discover: 100 top science stories of 2007.
  • Bryner, J. 2007. Floral 'Big Bang' led to stunning diversity, MSNBC
  • Fountain, H. 2007. A smelly puzzle, solved, The New York Times

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    Morphological Research

    Focusing on Five Groups: Malpighiales, Ericales, Saxifragales, Carylophyllales, and Lamiales
    Observations are available in the morphological database MorphBank, R. Ronquist).

  • Completed over 100 morphological characters assessments on 140 taxa - all images documented by SEM or photographs
  • Assessing the pattern of variation within these characters within these clades; currently, 93 morphological characters for Malpighiales have been developed
  • The completion of characters of these five groups will be mapped onto various molecular topologies, and will provide a test of the methodology on integrating morphological data onto the eventual 370-taxon cladogram of angiosperms.

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    Phyloinformatics Research

    Integrating local and distributed data on the Tree of Life

  • AToL has employed the first of the "next generation sequencers", the 454 Life Sciences GS20/FLX platform, to sequence 36 flowering plant plastid genomes (Moore et. al. 2007). The 454 sequencer produces highly accurate and complete plastid genome sequence at great savings of time and money over traditional shotgun sequencing (Moore et. al. 2006). With genome-scale data, the most difficult relationships among major groups of angiosperms can now be addressed, resulting in a new era of great promise for resolving the remaining thorny nodes in the angiosperm branch of the Tree of Life.
  • The angiosperm AToL group, along with other Tree of Life groups, collaborates in TOLKIN, an informative management and analytical web application for phylodiversity and biodiversity research. This application allows collaborators in different locations to access shared data on voucher specimens, taxonomy, bibliography, morphology and DNA samples and sequences.
  • TOLKIN generates external data to resources such as International Plant Names Index, Global Biodiversity Information Facility, Tropicos, GenBank, Index Nominum Genicorum, TreeBASE and BioGeomancer, where users are able to see a summary of sequencing activities.
  • Tolkin also provides a workbench functionality for analysis of sequence data by automating the assemblage of Fasta files, BLASTing capability, multiple sequence alignments, output of Nexus Files, and automating deposit of digital data to repositories such as GenBank.

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    Outreach

    Use of the AToL Grant has enabled the following activities

  • Public education through the new family-friendly exhibit, Travels in the Great Tree of Life (Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University), and through First Flower, part of the PBS television series NOVA (April 2007)
  • Training for postdocs, graduate, and undergraduate students, especially underrepresented groups, that focus on interdisciplinary training, combining phylogenetic, genomic, and evolutionary biology
  • AToL experience gained by PIs is used in their academic courses and to update the widely used book, Plant Systematics: A Phylogenetic Approach

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