Clark DEB-9806584 The grasses are economically and ecologically extremely important plants. Not only does this family include major world crops such as wheat, rice, maize, barley, sugar cane, and bamboo, but the grasses also occur in virtually all terrestrial habitats. An understanding of the evolutionary relationships among the different groups of grasses provides a fundamental framework for research in many fields, including biodiversity, genetics, development, molecular biology, and crop improvement. The Grass Phylogeny Working Group (GPWG), consisting of 12 grass taxonomists, was formed in 1996 to analyze a number of different, recently available data sets that contain information about evolutionary relationships among grasses. The results of this analysis, along with an updated classification of the grass family based on their evolutionary relationships, will be presented at the Third International Grass Symposium to be held in Sydney, Australia, in September, 1998 in conjunction with the Second International Conference on the Comparative Biology of the Monocotyledons. The funding provided will support travel by ten of the U. S. members of the GPWG, including junior investigators and a graduate student, to attend this meeting and to present and discuss the results of this collaborative effort.
