Date of Award:

5-1-2007

Document Type:

Thesis

Degree Name:

Master of Science (MS)

Department:

Biology

Department name when degree awarded

Life Sciences: Biology

Committee Chair(s)

Paul G. Wolf

Committee

Paul G. Wolf

Committee

Lee F. Rickords

Committee

Michael Pfrender

Abstract

The circular chloroplast genome map of land plants is generally conserved with respect to gene content and organization. However, sufficient variation also exists to allow phylogenetic information to be gleaned from the molecule. The ferns exhibit a highly rearranged gene order in and around the inverted repeat which appeared to hold phylogenetically useful information. To test the usefulness of these rearrangement events I first sequenced the complete plastid genome sequence of the marratioid fern Angiopteris. I then used the complete chloroplast genome sequences of the ferns Adiantum and Angiopteris to design alternative sets of Long-PCR primers within genes contained in the inverted repeat and flanking regions. PCR was then used to map the plastid inverted repeat gene order of Osmunda, Trichomanes, Gleichenia, Lygodium, Dicksonia, and Pteridium and compared them to the structures of Angiopteris and Adiantum. Initial mapping was based on the success and failure of PCR using alternative pairs of primers. Subsequent structural detail was obtained from sequencing of PCR products. Final results indicate it is possible to track the inversion events. This being the case, inversion events appear to be a type of data that may be used to clarify ambiguous regions in phylogenetic trees which sequence data cannot resolve. For example, my work determined that the gleichenoid ferns are not grouped with the filmy ferns, which until now had been an unresolved region within the fern phylogeny.

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