Fern Systematics

This seminar will be an in-depth study of the issues around the origin, diversification, and speciation in ferns. These issues span evolutionary topics as diverse as fern phylogeny, "fern allies", fossil record of fern diversification, modern fern radiation, biogeography of ferns, species concepts in ferns, polyploidy in ferns, life cycles in ferns, and fern genomics. The weekly seminar will examine recent primary literature as well as selected chapters from Ranker and Haufler (2008) Biology and Evolution of Ferns and Lycophytes [referred to hereafter as BEFL]. Course syllabus available here as pdf. Participants are expected to read the chapter prior to the Sunday before each Tuesday session and provide the leader by Sunday p.m. with a specific question or issue they had with the reading or topic. The leader of each session will give a 20 min powerpoint overview of the topic/readings and set up discussion points for 3-4 small groups. The leader is encouraged to consult additional supplementary materials as s/he prepares the presentation. Class participation by everyone is expected - reading the material, preparing weekly questions, and small group discussion - and will be taken into account when determining final grades.

Other information, references, or links below

Date	Topics - Links to reading(s) as pdf available at Learn@UW	Leader
Jan 19	Introduction and organization	Ken Sytsma

Jan 26	Fern phylogeny	Evie Williams
	Schuettpelz and Pryer. 2007. Fern phylogeny inferred from 400 leptosporangiate species and three plastid genes. Taxon 56:1037-1050 BEFL chapter 15 - Fern phylogeny

Feb 2	Fern "allies"	Shahrizim Zulkifly
	Pryer et al. 2001. Horsetails and ferns are a monophyletic group and the closest living relatives to seed plants. Nature 409:618-622 Schneider et al. 2009. Is morphology really at odds with molecules in estimating fern phylogeny. Systematic Botany 34: 455-475

Feb 9	Fern classification	Deniz Aygoren
	BEFL chapter 16 - Fern classification

Feb 16	Ancient fern diversification	Christopher Cardona
	BEFL chapter 13 - Phylogeny and evolution of ferns: a paleontological perspective Rothwell and Nixon. 2006. How does the inclusion of fossil data change our conclusions about the phylogenetic history of Euphyllophytes? International Journal Plant Sciences 167: 737-749. Rothwell. 1999. Fossils and ferns in the resolution of land plant phylogeny. The Botanical Review 65: 188-218.

Feb 23	Modern fern diversification	Rafael Arevalo
	Schuettpelz and Pryer. 2009. Evidence for a Cenozoic radiation of ferns in an angiosperm-dominated canopy. PNAS 106: 11200-11205 Schneider et al. 2004. Ferns diversified in the shadow of angiosperms. Nature 428: 554-557

Mar 2	Species concepts in ferns	Emily Sessa
	Yatskievych and Moran. 1989. Primary divergence and species concepts in ferns. American Fern Journal 79: 36-45. Paris et al. 1989. Cryptic species, species delimitations, and taxonomic practice in the homosporous ferns. American Fern Journal 79: 46-54. Barrington et al. 1989. Hybridization, reticulation, and species concepts in the ferns. American Fern Journal 79: 55-64. BEFL chapter 12 - Species and speciation

Mar 9	Polyploidy: Debate on whether to be a polyploid fern	Ken Cameron - moderator
	Wood et al. 2009. The frequency of polyploid speciation. PNAS 106: 13875-13879 Lynch and Conery. 2000. The evolutionary fate and consequences of duplicate genes. Science 290: 1151-1155 Otto and Whitton. 2000. Polyploid incidence and evolution. Annual Review of Genetics 34: 401-437 Gastony. 1986. Electrophoretic evidence for the origin of fern species by unreduced spores. American Journal of Botany 73: 1563-1569

Mar 16	Polyploidy: an example from Appalachian Asplenium	Lois Anderson
	Wagner. 1954. Reticulate evolution in the Appalachian Aspleniums. Evolution 8: 103-118 Perrie. 2005. Insights into the biogeography and polyploid evolution of New Zealand Asplenium from chloroplast DNA sequence data. American Fern Journal 95: 1-21

Mar 23	Fern life cycle / breeding systems: workshop	Emily Sessa
	Masuyama and Watano.1990. Trends for inbreeding in polyploid pteridophytes. Plant Species Biology 5: 13-17 Soltis and Soltis. 1990. Evolution of inbreeding and outcrossing in ferns and fern-allies. Plant Species Biology 5: 1-11 Soltis and Soltis. 1990.Genetic variation within and among populations of ferns. American Fern Journal 80: 161-172 Soltis and Soltis. 1987. Polyploidy and breeding systems in homosporous pteridophyta: a reevaluation. The American Naturalist 130: 219-232 BEFL chapter 2 - Alternation of generations

Apr 6	Fern biogeography	Brian Sidoti
	Geiger et al. 2007. Molecular biogeography and origins of the Hawaiian fern flora. Brittonia 59: 142-158 Wolf et al. 2001. Geographic distributions of homosporous ferns: does dispersal obscure evidence of vicariance?. Journal of Biogeography 28: 263-270 BEFL chapter 14 - Diversity, biogeography, and floristics

Apr 13	Genome structure and evolution	Ken Sytsma
	BEFL chapter 6 - Structure and evolution of fern plastid genomes BEFL chapter 7 - Evolution of the nuclear genome of ferns and lycophytes

Apr 20	Fern identification in WIS Herbarium

Apr 27	Fern identification in WIS Herbarium

May 4	Local fieldtrip and/or Sat May 8 trip to Baraboo Hills

Botany 940 - Systematics Seminar

Issues in Fern Systematics