9420233 La Duke Combining detailed knowledge of the morphology and breeding systems of plants of the cotton or hollyhock family Malvaceae with new molecular data from restriction enzyme analyses of chloroplast DNA, the team of Drs. John La Duke and Paul Fryxell is studying taxonomic relationships among the 110 genera of this important group of tropical and temperate-zone plants. Representative samples from nearly all genera are being acquired throughout the world, for extensive surveys of morphology, chromosome number, and DNA data. Analyses of the combined datasets promise to provide robust estimates of the phylogenetic or genealogical relationships among all the genera. In turn, the genealogical framework will guide the testing of ideas about historical patterns of migration and dispersal and about the origins of the family and its major subgroupings. The combination of traditional morphological analyses with new DNA data, applied to a large and interesting group of plants, many with economic value (cotton, okra, hibiscus, hollyhock), promises to provide a sound phylogenetic framework for comprehending the evolution and biogeography of Malvaceae. ??
