Palynotaxonomy, pollen types, and evolution of pollen grains in 'Arrabidaea & allies' (Bignonieae, Bignoniaceae)

• Grant number: 24/15859-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate (Direct)
• Start date: March 01, 2025
• End date: January 31, 2029
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Botany - Plant Morphology
• Principal Investigator: Eduardo Custódio Gasparino
• Grantee: Isaura de Paula Cerdan
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias (FCAV). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Jaboticabal. Jaboticabal , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Bignoniaceae Juss. is a Lamiales family with 80 genera and about 850 species of trees, lianas, or shrubs distributed in tropical and subtropical areas. The family consists of seven tribes, with Bignonieae considered the largest tribe in terms of species number and with ecologically important species. The tribe Bignonieae exhibits the highest morpho pollinic diversity in the family and includes the clade 'Arrabidaea & allies', which encompasses species from the genera Cuspidaria, Lundia, Tanaecium, Tynanthus, and Xylophragma. This work aims to study the palynotaxonomy and the evolution of pollen grain characteristics of 118 species belonging to the clade 'Arrabidaea & allies'. Furthermore, the project will result in a pollen catalog that will assist applied palynology in identifying taxa, such as melissopalynology and geopalynology. In the analysis, the pollen grains will be acetolyzed, measured, described, and photomicrographed using light microscopy, and scanning electron microscopy, when necessary. Quantitative data will be analyzed using appropriate statistical methods for sample size and subjected to multivariate analysis, while qualitative data will be organized for the description of pollen types. The obtained pollen grain characters will be used to understand the morpho pollinic evolution of the taxa through the construction of a consensus tree via parsimony.