Botany 2018

Crops and Wild Relatives

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Brassica oleracea: The Dog of the Plant World Makenzie Mabry

Breeding the Dog of the Plant World: Development of Doubled Haploid Brassica oleracea Evan Gallagher

Domestication and ferality ofBrassica rapa (pak choi, napa cabbage, oilseeds, and turnips) clarified through Genotyping-By-Sequencing Alex McAlvay

Phylogenetics of gold-of-pleasure (Camelina sativa L.) and its wild relatives Jordan Brock, with Ken Olsen

亚麻荠 Camelina sativa (potential for biofuel) ddRADseq

The Hidden half of weedy rice – 3D imaging to identify weediness-associated root traits Marshall Wedger, with Ken Olsen

Genetic and phenotypic diversity in a halophytic grass David Goad,

Pop gen

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Judd, Walter [1], Judd, Graham [2].

Flora of J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-Earth.

Many readers of The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings believe that the events of these books occur in an imaginary world and thus have no connection with the world around us. However, J. R. R. Tolkien sought to correct this misconception, stating that Middle-earth "is just the use of Middle English middle-erde (or erthe)...the name for the inhabited lands of Men 'between the seas.'" His writings should not be considered escapist, but instead are meant to reconnect us to the world in which we live - including the landscapes of our natural environment - and especially plants! In Tolkien's legendarium, plants are the primary concern of Yavanna Kement

Kellogg, Elizabeth [1].

A tale of two meristems, Or, Dissecting a synapomorphy.

In the early days of phylogenetic analysis (cladistics), the search for morphological synapomorphies was central to reconstructing phylogenies. Fast forward to the early 2000s, and we now can use the phylogeny to understand morphology by identifying structures, gene networks, or processes that are unique to particular clades. The study of morphology thus becomes many-layered and defies assignment to a particular scientific subdiscipline. In this talk I present a case study from the grass tribe Andropogoneae, the most economically and ecologically important of the grasses, including maize, sorghum, and most of the dominant species of the world's C4 grasslands. Identification keys use the presence of paired spikelets as a diagnostic character for Andropogoneae. Phylogenies show that paired spikelets are shared among members of the clade but they appear in parallel elsewhere in the family. Developmentally, the paired spikelets originate from an enlarged branch meristem that converts rapidly to spikelet meristems, one sessile and one pedicellate. In Andropogoneae this branch structure is controlled by a uniquely derived genetic network. Thus the shared derived character for the tribe is not just the morphological structure but also the network that controls it. The pair is also subtended by an abscission zone, the position of which is synapomorphic for Andropogoneae s.s. In other panicoid grasses, the abscission zone forms below the spikelet and the change in position occurred before diversification of the tribe. The entire pair is thus functions as the dispersal unit. Spikelets in other panicoid grasses are generally identical in structure and function, but in the Andropogoneae spikelets of the pair partitioned the ancestral functions, with one being dedicated to seed bearing and largely encased in a hard covering (glume) and the other staminate, sterile or missing entirely. When present, the pedicellate spikelet serves as a nurse tissue providing photosynthate to the developing seed in the sessile spikelet. Because of this function, the pedicellate spikelet can be is agronomically important in cultivated species. The diagnostic - and uniquely derived - character for Andropogoneae is thus not just the pair of spikelets, but also the position of the abscission zone, the underlying genetic network, and the functions in dispersal and photosynthesis. The morphology of a simple pair of spikelets thus offers additional layers of insight into evolutionary mechanisms and potential selective forces.

Application of plant genome

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Allison Miller: North American grapevines: diversity, diversification, and rootstock domestication