9521883 Stotler Recognizing the need for enhancing taxonomic expertise in the study of liverworts (Division Hepaticophyta of the Kingdom Plantae) Profs. Raymond Stotler and Barbara Crandall-Stotler of Southern Illinois University propose to apprentice students through involvement in a worldwide monograph of the "simple thalloid" taxa of the suborder Fossombroniinae of the Metzgeriales. A broad program of traditional and modern studies will focus on the several hundred species expected to occur within this taxonomic framework, including: (1) morphometric analyses with computer imaging systems to assess variability in gametophytic and sporophytic features of these small, often epiphyllous plants; (2) starch gel electrophoresis of proteins to measure levels of genetic variability within and among populations of several species; (3) spore bank studies to determine coexisting species assemblages in nature, and to measure genetic differences between these co-occurring taxa; (4) DNA sequencing of chloroplast and nuclear genes, in cooperation with Prof. Brent Mishler at the University of California-@erkeley, to measure mutational differences between taxa and construct phylogenies; (5) field work in the U.S. including Puerto Rico; and (6) construction of a WorldWide Web link to computer databases on hepatics maintained at the institution. Training of graduate and undergraduate students will combine formal course work at the University and in tropical sites in Puerto Rico with laboratory and museum studies, including studies in Mishler's lab at UC-Berkeley. Computerization of various data-gathering and data-analyzing tasks is fully integrated throughout the five years of the project, and will enhance the prompt dissemination of information on these moss-like plants.
