Cole T.C.H., H.H. Hilger, J.B. Bachelier, B. Goffinet, P.F. Stevens, N.M. Shiyan, S.L. Zhygalova & S.L. Mosyakin. Spanning the Globe – The Plant Phylogeny Poster (PPP) Project. Ukrainian Botanical Journal: Short Communication 78(3): 235–241. https://doi.org/10.15407/ukrbotj78.03.235

Abstract reads: Historically, wallcharts and posters created by botanical illustrators, often highly skilled artists, have played an important role in teaching botany at the university level. Large-scale panels and posters can visualize complex interrelationships and entire stories in a clear and appealing overview in graphs, tables, and diagrams. Carrying this concept of educational tools into the electronic era, the Plant Phylogeny Poster project uses this approach for displaying evolutionary relationships in systematic botany. The Angiosperm Phylogeny Poster (APP) displays, as phylogenetically arranged clades, the orders and families of flowering plants (with orders hyperlinked to APweb, Stevens, 2001–onwards), the Tracheophyte Phylogeny Poster (TPP) families and genera of ferns and gymnosperms, and the Bryophyte Phylogeny Poster (BPP) orders and families of liverworts, mosses, and hornworts. The portfolio currently also includes about 30 posters on individual orders and families of angiosperms. Each group within these evolutionary trees is matched with essentially relevant morphological features, biogeographic occurrences, and other information in compactly condensed text blocks. All posters are freely available online, some in more than 30 languages, coauthored by a team of more than 130 botanists. The posters are regularly updated, current literature is cited. The project is expanding steadily and rapidly.

Rafael Medina, a former postdoc in our lab, lead-authored the paper: Medina, R., M.G. Johnson, Y. Liu, N.J. Wickett, A.J. Shaw & B. Goffinet. 2019. “Phylogenomic delineation of Physcomitrium (Bryophyta: Funariaceae) based on targeted sequencing of nuclear exons and their flanking regions rejects the retention of Physcomitrella, Physcomitridium and Aphanorrhegma” and published in the Journal of Systematics and Evolution 57: 404–417 in 2019. https://doi.org/10.1111/jse.12516

In 2019, this publication earned the Special issue paper award from the Journal of Systematics and Evolution.

In 2021, the journal awarded him, for this publication, the “JSE Outstanding Paper by Young Investigators Award”, which will be announced in the latest issue of 2021.

Rafa is now a faculty member at the University of Madrid.

 

Congratulations Rafa.

 

Congratulations to Zach who was awarded the ABLS 2021 Culberson and Hale award ($1,000) for field research in lichenology ($1,000) from ABLS (American Bryological and Lichenological Society) for field work in Mexico, based on his proposal entitled “The search for Niebla & Trebouxia: a lichenologist goes south”. Enjoy the trip!

Zach Muscavitch was awarded a $3,000 grant from the Society of Systematic Biologists for a component of his dissertation research entitled “Uncovering the evolution of reciprocal specificity in the Trebouxia (alga)-Nie
bla (fungus) lichen association” Congratulations Zach.

The publication of the study revealing the presence of (re)introduced lichenized fungi in CT, based on populations present on the university campus (Frye H.A., Z. Muscavitch & B. Goffinet. 2021. Discovery of epiphytic lichens in Connecticut suggests novel introduction and reintroduction via horticultural practices. The Bryologist 124: 191–197. pdf, see post) prompted an article “Ecologists are ‘Lichen’ a Surprising New Find on Campus” in UCONN today.

Welcome back! Dr. Antoine Simon, who has visited UCONN and our lab during his MSc and Ph.D. is coming back! Antoine was awarded a fellowship from the Belgian American Education foundation to spend one year here, and further explore the evolution of lichenized fungi!

Some of the publications emerging from his recent work:

Frye H.A., Z. Muscavitch & B. Goffinet. 2021. Discovery of epiphytic lichens in Connecticut suggests novel introduction and reintroduction via horticultural practices. The Bryologist 124: 191–197. pdf

Abstract reads: The discovery of Teloschistes chrysophthalmus in Connecticut more than one hundred years since its last known occurrence is argued to result from human introduction. The species only occurred on the horticultural tree, Gleditsia triacanthos var. inermis, planted on the University of Connecticut campus. Gleditsia triacanthos is not indigenous to northeastern North America but is widespread in the central United States. Other epiphytic macrolichens also recorded on this phorophyte include Punctelia bolliana and Parmotrema austrosinense, both widespread in the central United States, and new to Connecticut and New England, respectively. This is likely the first reported case of combined introductions of lichenized fungi in North America through the import of ornamental trees.

 

DOUBLE congratulations to Zach Muscavitch, co-advised by Drs. Louise Lewis and B. Goffinet for his recent grant of $500 from the Northeast Algal Society to explore the hidden diversity of the green algal genus Trebouxia lichenized with fungi of the Ramalinaceae, AND of $1,200 from the American Society of Plant Taxonomists to explore specificity in the association between the species of fungal symbiont (i.e., Niebla s. lat.) and its algal partner of the genus Trebouxia .

Dong S., S. Zhang, L. Zhang, H. Wu, B. Goffinet & Y. Liu. 2021. Plastid genomes and phylogenomics of the early land plant liverworts (Marchantiophyta): conserved genome structure and highest plastid substitution rates among three genetic compartments. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 161: 107171.  pdf  Google Scholar.

Highlights

• We newly generated 42 complete liverwort plastomes spreading 13 out of 15 liverwort orders.This study confirmed the conserved structural evolution of liverwort plastomes despite characterization of two structural variants in simple thalloid liverworts, including one newly reported structural variant of Pallavicinia lyellii.
• Our plastid phylogenomic reconstruction cemented the backbone phylogeny of liverwort and consistently supported the sister relationship of Ptilidium with Porellales.
• In liverworts, plastid protein-coding genes have the highest substitution rates, they are on average 1.5-fold, 15-fold that of their nuclear, and mitochondrial counterparts.

Congratulations to Zach Muscavitch, a member of the Louise Lewis & Goffinet lab, for being awarded $1,900, a Grant in Aid of Research from the Phycological Society of America for his project “Developing a novel genomic resource for identifying lichen photobiont diversity and understanding the evolution of symbiont specificity“.