| Grant number: | 11/18385-0 |
| Support Opportunities: | Regular Research Grants |
| Start date: | December 01, 2011 |
| End date: | May 31, 2014 |
| Field of knowledge: | Biological Sciences - Botany - Plant Taxonomy |
| Principal Investigator: | José Rubens Pirani |
| Grantee: | José Rubens Pirani |
| Host Institution: | Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil |
Abstract
Asteraceae is a cosmopolitan family of flowering plants showing higher diversity in grasslands, savannas and montane forests. This project aims to study two of its largest genera, Baccharis L., with about 400 species, occurs in grasslands, savannas and upper montane forests, while Mikania Willd., comprising about 450 species, predominates in forests, but is also present in open vegetations. The impressing diversity of Baccharis and Mikania, of which around 90% of the species occur in the Neotropics, make possible to investigate the diversification of Asteraceae in forest, grass and savanna ecosystems. The project aims to study the systematics and evolution of Baccharis and Mikania, proposing hypothesis to explain the diversification of these genera, towards a better understanding of the shifts of grassland/forest environments and of the floristic connections among forests, savannas and grasslands in South America. To achieve the goals, the proposed activities comprise the study of herbaria specimens, field work, morphological description and molecular characterization, by the means of nrDNA and cpDNA markers, and phylogenetic analysis, based on morphological and molecular data, considered isolated or combined. The project involves the selection of informative morphological characters to the phylogenetic analysis; the adjustment of protocols for DNA extraction and amplification, and the screening of molecular markers potentially informative to the reconstruction of the phylogeny investigated genera. We aim to obtain phylogenetic hypothesis to the evolution of Baccharis and Mikania, to apply the phylogenies regarding to the improvement of the infrageneric classification systems of these genera, and to propose evolutionary hypothesis to the evolution of morphological, biological and autoecological characters, contributing to the study of the patterns of diversification of Asteraceae in South America. (AU)
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