Life Sciences Commons^™

Interesting, Provocative, And Enigmatic: Morphological Observations On Southeastern Quillworts (Isoetes Isoetaceae, Lycopodiophyta, Rebecca D. Bray, Peter W. Schafran, Lytton J. Musselman

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

The unique morphology of quillworts has received limited attention, and such studies have been limited to only a few species. Our extensive field work during the past two decades has revealed variation in the structures of the plant, including the rhizomorph, scales, phyllopodia, and abscission caps. Polarity of the axes of southeastern quillwort rhizomorphs varies from discoid (most species), to elongate, to upright with axis branching in several species. In species of intermittent streams, these branched rhizomorphs produce plantlets that break off in running water. Scales are tiny brown or black structures in alternating whorls with sporophylls (leaves). They are …

Low- Copy Nuclear Markers In Isoëtes (Isoëtaceae) Identified With Transcriptomes, Peter W. Schafran, Gabriel Johnson, W. Carl Taylor, Elizabeth A. Zimmer, Lytton J. Musselman

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

PREMISE OF THE STUDY: Few genetic markers provide phylogenetic information in closely related species of Isoëtes (Isoëtaceae). We describe the development of primers for several putative low- copy nuclear markers to resolve the phylogeny of Isoëtes, particularly in the southeastern United States.

METHODS AND RESULTS: We identified regions of interest in Isoëtes transcriptomes based on low- copy genes in other plants. Primers were designed for these regions and tested with 16 taxa of Isoëtes and one species of Lycopodium. Parts of the pgiC, gapC, and IBR3 gene regions show phylogenetic signal within the North American and …

Does Channel Island Acmispon (Fabaceae) Form Cohesive Evolutionary Groups?, Mitchell E. Mcglaughlin, Lynn Riley, Kaius Helenurm, Lisa A. Wallace

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

The California Channel Islands are unique relative to other island chains due to their close proximity to the California mainland and the fact that individual islands, or groups of islands, vary in their distance to the mainland and other islands. This orientation raises questions about whether island taxa with widespread distributions form cohesive evolutionary units, or if they are actually composed of several distinct evolutionary entities, either derived from independent mainland-to-island colonization events or divergence due to prolonged allopatric isolation. The 4 northern islands are clustered in a line (6-8 km separation among islands), while the 4 southern islands are …