Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Date

2024

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Department

Biology

Committee Chair

Jennifer Mandel

Committee Member

Cassandra Nuñez

Committee Member

Clayton Visger

Abstract

Modern phylogenetics, or the study of organismal evolutionary relationships, establishes the basis of understanding needed to explore the evolution and ecology of biological systems. Knowing the past of how species arrived where they are today allows us to make inferences about what might occur in the future under different climate and geological conditions by combining geologic knowledge with phylogenetic discoveries. Dyssodia is a small, understudied genus of plants from the marigold (Tageteae) tribe of the sunflower (Asteraceae) family. The goal of this project is to use next generation sequencing techniques to better understand the relationships within the Dyssodia genus. By using a target enriched approach this project will use over 2,000 genes and gene regions specific to the Asteraceae family to reconstruct two nuclear phylogenies of the genus and close outgroups and allow for a chloroplast genome phylogeny to be reconstructed with much greater coverage than previous works on the genus Dyssodia. Additional analysis have been performed to further elucidate upon the evolutionary and biogeographical relationships within the genus.

Comments

Data is provided by the student.

Library Comment

Dissertation or thesis originally submitted to ProQuest.

Notes

Open Access

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