The bamboos (family Poaceae: Bambusoideae), which include the true bamboos and rices, are a morphologically and ecologically diverse group of temperate and tropical grasses that comprise approximately 116 genera and 1300 species. The rices, an important cereal crop, have been extensively studied, but the true bamboos (both woody and herbaceous) are much less well known taxonomically, and large gaps in our knowledge of bamboos remain. Evolutionary relationships among the groups of bamboos, and between bamboos and other grasses, have been only superficially explored. With combined expertise in morphological and molecular techniques, Drs. Clark and Wendel of Iowa State University are studying the taxonomic diversity of bamboos on a worldwide basis. The primary goals of their research are: 1. to produce an explicit and robust phylogenetic hypothesis of bamboo evolution using a combined approach to integrate morphological and genomic data with modern cladistic methods, and 2. to generate a classification of the bamboos at the tribal and generic levels that will ally related groups of species into monophyletic groups (all those likely sharing a recent common ancestor). Morphological studies will include new investigations by scanning electron microscopy of leaf and seed surface features. Molecular studies will include analyses of patterns of restriction-enzyme digests of chloroplast DNA. Collaborators from around the world are supplying samples from the numerous genera of bamboos. The research promises the first global perspective on bamboo evolution uniting morphological and genomic data, and will facilitate subsequent taxonomic and biogeographic studies of bamboos and their close relatives.
