花、基因、禾本科

进化发育生物学的一个重要任务就是揭示形态多样性的分子基础, 该领域的研究包含形态、形态发育相关基因和形态所属类群等三个要素。花/花序是进化发育生物学研究的首要对象, 系统发育重建和个体发育剖析的结合将促进认知花的形态进化。发育相关基因的进化表现为等位基因遗传或表观遗传的突变, 基因家族生与死的进化, 不同基因组拥有独特的基因。运用形态学或序列分析方法很大程度揭示了禾本科植物花进化过程中的基因进化。试从学科问题、思路方法以及具体例子介绍植物进化发育生物学。     

植物MADS盒基因与花器官的进化发育

已在维管植物中发现百余种MADS盒基因,此种基因家族由表达模式和功能关系密切的基因构成多种特定的亚族和DEF／GLO类（B功能）,AG类（C和D功能）等,植物花器官发生和花形态多样性的遗传机理和进化规律都可能与MADS盒基因的结构,表达以及功能进行相关。     

烟草花蜜腺花育的解剖学研究

烟草的花蜜腺位于子房基部,围绕子房,属于子房蜜腺,蜜腺由分泌表皮和泌蜜组织组成,分泌表皮角质膜厚薄不均,表皮上分布少量气孔器,气孔凹陷,孔下室不明显,泌蜜组织细胞多层。蜜腺邻接子房壁维管束,本身没有维管组织,蜜腺由子房基部的外壁表皮及其相邻的的内侧细胞经分裂,生长、分化而来,在发育过程中,细胞中的液泡和淀粉粒都呈现一定的水长规律,原蜜汁由子房壁维管束提供,经过泌蜜组织细胞加工后,蜜汁通过气孔和薄的角膜处泌出。     

花对称性的研究进展

花对称性(floral symmetry)是被子植物花部结构的典型特性之一,主要有辐射对称和两侧对称两种形式。被子植物初始起源的花为辐射对称,而两侧对称的花则是由辐射对称的花演变而来。两侧对称的花部结构是被子植物进化过程中的一个关键的革新,被认为是物种形成和分化的关键推动力之一。近年来有关花对称性的形成和进化机制的研究在植物学科的不同领域均取得了长足的进展。本文综述了花对称性在发育生物学、传粉生物学、生殖生态学及分子生物学等方面的研究进展。两侧对称形成于被子植物花器官发育的起始阶段,随后贯穿整个花器官发育过程或者出现在花器官发育后期的不同阶段。花器官发育过程中一种或多种类型器官的败育以及特异性花器官结构的形成是两侧对称形成的主要原因。研究表明,在传粉过程的不同阶段,花对称性均会受到传粉昆虫介导的选择作用。相比辐射对称的花,两侧对称的花提高了特异性传粉者的选择作用,增加了花粉落置的精确性,进而确保了其生殖成功。花对称性的分子机理已经在多种双子叶植物中进行了深入的研究。现有的证据表明,CYC同源基因在花对称性的分子调控方面起着非常重要的作用。花对称性在被子植物进化过程中是如何起源,与其他花部构成之间是否协同作用,一些不符合一般模式的科属其花对称性的形成机制等都是今后要进一步研究的命题。     

兰花蕉花的形态解剖学

兰花蕉（Orchidantha chinensis)的子房室顶部闭合后向上延长成延长部,实心,但有花柱沟和隔膜蜜腺管通过,隔膜蜜腺管,可分为中央蜜腺管和三条侧蜜腺管;中央蜜腺管位于三个心皮连接处,自子房室区下部产生,向上于延长部的部顶端终止;三条侧管分别位于两个心皮连接处,于子房室区近中部产生,开口于花柱基部。兰花蕉子房室区与延长部均具6枚雄蕊的维管束系统,即3枚心皮背束的伴束与3枚隔膜束,近轴面1枚事膜向上进入唇瓣的维管束系统,位于唇瓣的中央,致使兰花蕉仅具5枚功能雄蕊,唇瓣具双重结构,本文还讨论了兰花蕉科的系统发育位置。     

禾本科系统学与演化研究的进展

：综合近年来禾本科不同分支学科的研究进展,对当前禾本科研究的4个热点进行讨论：1．禾本科内不同阶元系统的种系发育研究方法,有传统的、实验的、历史的、分支的4种分析方法;2．性系统的演化,涉及自交亲和繁育方式的优势、偏离正常性比的发育模式、性别决定的分子生物学基础3个方面;3．花序演化的形态学、遗传学、发育形态学研究;4．禾本科的起源时间。总的看来,不同性状的数据比较和不同研究方法的综合已构成现代禾本科系统学研究的必然趋势,建立一个反映植物系统发育历史的分类是禾本科系统学研究的最终目标。     

花发育的基因调控与花性状的改造

花发育的基因调控与花性状的改造华志明（厦门大学生物学系,厦门３６１００５）植物种子萌发后,经过一段时间的营养生长,在内外界环境因子共同作用下,植物开始由营养生长向生殖生长转变。花的发育（成花过程）就是这种转变的重要标志。成花过程不仅是植物生长发育中的...     

用天竺蔡观察花的基本结构

九年义务教育 3年制初级中学教科书《生物》第 1册(上 )中的实验十二 ,“观察花的基本结构”实验所用材料是桃花 ,应用桃花做实验 ,在实际操作中有许多不便 :1 )桃花的开花有一定的季节 ,往往与实验的时间无法衔接 ;2 )采摘桃花受限 ,实验要消耗大量的材料 (一般 1个学生以准备 3朵花为宜 ,这样 1个 4 0 0人的年级需用 1 2 0 0朵以上的花朵 ,一般的果农很难接受 )。如果购买又需要一笔开支。经过反复的实验 ,发现一般普遍栽培的天竺葵( Pelargonium hortorum bailey)是完成“观察花的基本结构”实验的好材料。它是 1种多年生的草本植物 ,1…     

How Development May Direct Evolution

A framework is presented in which the role ofdevelopmental rules in phenotypic evolution canbe studied for some simple situations. Usingtwo different implicit models of development,characterized by different developmental mapsfrom genotypes to phenotypes, it is shown bysimulation that developmental rules and driftcan result in directional phenotypic evolutionwithout selection. For both models thesimulations show that the critical parameterthat drives the final phenotypic distributionis the cardinality of the set of genotypes thatmap to each phenotype. Details of thedevelopmental map do not matter. If phenotypesare randomly assigned to genotypes, the lastresult can also be proved analytically.     

文昌鱼特异的基因倍增

进化生物学和发育生物学的结合产生了一门新兴学科——进化发育生物学,近年来该领域研究取得了丰硕的成果。头索动物文昌鱼是现存生物中最近似于脊椎动物直接祖先的生物,在与脊椎动物分化后形态改变很小,其基因组未曾经历大规模的基因组倍增,在一定程度上反映了脊椎动物祖先型基因组的特征,但在漫长的独立进化历程中基因组自身还是经历了一些变化。本文介绍了在几例在文昌鱼支系中独立发生的基因倍增事件(Hox; Evx; HNF-3; Calmodulin-like),有力地揭示了文昌鱼虽然与脊椎动物直接祖先极其接近,但其基因组有其自身特性,不能简单地将之等同于脊椎动物直接祖先。Abstract: The union of the two complementary disciplines, developmental biology and evolutionary biology resulted in a new division of evolutionary developmental biology, namely “Evo-Devo”. Recently, the research on this field has been fruitful in understanding the origin and development of vertebrates. The cephalochordate amphioxus, which remains in relatively invariant morphology since the divergence from the vertebrate lineage, is the closest living relative to vertebrates. The vertebrate-like simple body plan and preduplicative genome provide amphioxus genes the privilege to serve as key landmark to understand morphological evolution. However, the amphioxus genome has not escaped evolution. In this paper several examples of independent gene (Hox; Evx; HNF-3 and Calmodulin-like) duplications in the cephalochordate lineage were summarized. These particularities and oddities remind the fact that amphioxus is not an immediate ancestor of the vertebrates but ‘only’ the closest living relative to the ancestor, with a mix of prototypical and amphioxus-specific features in its genome.     

Phylogeny,extinction and conservation: embracing uncertainties in a time of urgency

Evolutionary studies have played a fundamental role in our understanding of life, but until recently, they had only a relatively modest involvement in addressing conservation issues. The main goal of the present discussion meeting issue is to offer a platform to present the available methods allowing the integration of phylogenetic and extinction risk data in conservation planning. Here, we identify the main knowledge gaps in biodiversity science, which include incomplete sampling, reconstruction biases in phylogenetic analyses, partly known species distribution ranges, and the difficulty in producing conservation assessments for all known species, not to mention that much of the effective biological diversity remains to be discovered. Given the impact that human activities have on biodiversity and the urgency with which we need to address these issues, imperfect assumptions need to be sanctioned and surrogates used in the race to salvage as much as possible of our natural and evolutionary heritage. We discuss some aspects of the uncertainties found in biodiversity science, such as the ideal surrogates for biodiversity, the gaps in our knowledge and the numerous available phylogenetic diversity-based methods. We also introduce a series of cases studies that demonstrate how evolutionary biology can effectively contribute to biodiversity conservation science.     

为什么应该弃用“进化”而使用“演化”

Although Darwinian evolutionary theory has been widely spread in China, several misconceptions about evolution have been persistent among the general public and even the researchers. Some are simple misunderstandings, including evolution results in progress with organisms are always replaced by better forms through evolution, and humans or primates represent the most advanced organisms. Some are misconceptions about natural selection and imply organisms evolved based on what they need or all the current morphologies or biological phenotypes are the results of adaptation. The spread of these misconceptions in China stem partially from the historical misleading translation of “evolution” to “进化” in Chinese, which includes the meaning of progress with direction into more advance form. Here, we summarize major progresses of the evolutionary theory after the Modern Synthesis and discuss how this misleading translation introduces a barrier in understanding of these new theoretical developments, such as neutral or near-neutral theory, genetic drift hypothesis, trade-off theory, and many new concepts in evo-devo field. Looking back at the development of evolutionary theory over the past few hundred years, we emphasize that a series of revolutionary achievements in the last 30 years have brought about fundamental changes in our basic understanding of the evolution of life. Therefore, we strongly advocate a formal re-introducing of “演化”, a more correct translation of evolution, in textbook and in daily communication among Chinese biological researchers. We anticipate that this change will help to correct some of these deep-rooted misconceptions among general public and will ultimately stimulate the interest of younger generation in conceptually thinking of evolutionary theory.