Polyphasic studies on exiccata: phylogenetic evaluation of botanical type materials from historical Herbaria for cyanobacteria

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Dirk Albach, since 7/2011
• Subject Area: Evolution and Systematics of Plants and Fungi
• Term: from 2006 to 2011
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 19862697

For the first time polyphasic taxonomy integrating genotypic and phenotypic studies will be applied to historical herbarium collections of cyanobacteria. The new molecular tools combined with classical taxonomic procedures promise to improve the basis for classification of this metabolically uniform but morphologically complex microorganisms. The project proposed will introduce molecular data to classically described type species deposited in Herbaria. In that way type species in botanical sense could be also accepted by microbiologists. Data gained during this project would allow doing the first step in unification of two: botanical and bacteriological codes, at least in case of cyanobacteria. Here, we propose to introduce polyphasic taxonomy system based on molecular methods and morphological data to provide a new scaffold for the accumulated taxonomic knowledge on historical cyanobacterial herbaria. Furthermore molecular comparison of present e.g. toxic or nitrogen fixing strains with the morphologically identical, type-material will be performed in order to test the genotypic changes over time. The novelty of the project is that a type specimen will be explored in terms of its genetic as well as phenotypic properties. This opens the possibility to validate a large volume of ecologically relevant research and connect the modern polyphasic assessment of diversity with traditional phenotype-based identifications and floral listings. It will be tested for the first time whether microorganisms identified by phenotypic characters indeed correspond to the same genotype as traditionally assumed. It will also test whether the phycological practice of relying on fixed type specimens for reference or the bacteriological one using live axenic cultures as type reference are more reliable.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Ehemalige Antragstellerin: Privatdozentin Dr. Katarzyna A. Palinska, until 7/2011