[Note: these are rough minutes taken down during the meeting itself. They are intended for archival purposes; please excuse the rough edges -- we would appreciate getting feedback from anyone about errors or omissions in this document.] Green Plant Phylogeny Research Coordination Group Fourth Meeting--AIBS Architecture Building, University of Washington campus Seattle, Washington August 8, 1996 8:30 am - 5:00 pm Participants present: Alan Smith Andrew Douglas Barbara Crandall-Stotler Betty Lemmon Bill Hahn Bob Kuzoff Brent Mishler Brian Speer Chuck Delwiche Cookie Trivett Cynthia Morton Dan Nickrent Dick Olmstead Efrain De Luna Esther Sztein Gar Rothwell Geeta Bharathan Jeff Carmichael Jim Doyle Karen Renzaglia Kathy Pryer Ken Karol Kevin Boyle Larry Hufford Linda Graham Liz Zimmer Mark Buchheim Martha Cook Mike Frohlich Ned Friedman Pamela Diggle Pamela Soltis Pat Gensel Paul Wolfe Peter Crane Ray Stotler Rick McCourt Roy Brown Sara Hoot Shirley Tucker Shu-Miaw Chiaw The following are highly edited minutes. A. Introduction: List of general goals and summary of previous meetings: Berkeley: established criteria for selecting exemplar taxa (see below) and began the process for the Streptophyta. Breckenridge: reviewed the Berkeley agenda and began assembling a list of exemplar taxa for the green algae (sensu lato). Baton Rouge: discussion of problems associated with analyzing large datasets, meta-analysis, missing data, algorithm improvements, and parallel processing. B. Participants each gave a brief summary of their background and quick synopsis of their AIBS talks (since many talks were concurrent). C. Open Discussion: How to resolve missing and inappropriate data? Compartmentalization, clade analysis, character state analysis, and hierarchical characters were offered as possible solution(s) to this problem. What information should be included on the GPPRCG website? It was suggested that AIBS abstracts of the GPPRCG participants could/should be included (with permission of the author) What is the relationship of GPPRCG to: Tree of Life: The GPPRCG is a professional research coordination group, while the ToL has a different, educational role. The "product" of all coordinated research will be forwarded to TOL. Many participants in the GPPRCG are serving as authors for ToL pages, which will help ensure coordination between the projects. TreeBase: The GPPRCG does not plan to set up any independent archival resource similar to TreeBase, but strongly encourages participants to contribute published datasets and phylogenetic hypotheses there. Furthermore, the GPPRCG will provide some support to TreeBase to get all previously published green plant phylogeny papers databased there. Genbank: The GPPRCG does not plan to set up any type of archival resource similar to GENBANK. The data availability matrix will (in its final form) include reference to accession numbers. The coordinated analytical project envisioned by the GPPRCG will include no new data. Rather, only data that has undergone some peer review or has been made public will be used. Several participants expressed concern that the desire to rapidly fill the blanks in our data availability matrix must not replace the need for careful (i.e., time-consuming) research. 10:30 BREAK 10:55 RESUME D. Selecting Exemplar Taxa -- discussion of criteria established previously: 1) availability (material and/or other data already available) 2) nomenclatural types 3) model systems 4) basal taxa and/or isolated taxa; plesiomorphic taxa within a known specific subgroup (i.e. avoid highly autapomorphic taxa where appropriate); anomalous taxa (remnants?) 5) broad representation for diverse groups (even sampling of "true" tree) Do we need to re-evaluate our current exemplar list ? What drives the selection of exemplar taxa? Current availability of one type of data is one criterion (see above). It was noted that morphology should have priority (molecular data can, in most cases, be more easily acquired) in driving the selection of taxa. Several participants noted that interesting problems in understanding evolutionary transitions (morphological) should also be considered when selecting exemplar taxa 11:59: BREAK FOR LUNCH 1:15: RESUME E. Individual Break-out Groups (tracheophytes, bryophytes, green algae) met independently to discuss exemplar taxon lists and the data availability matrices. 3:20: RESUME F. Brief summaries of break-out group activities were given. Summaries were followed by discussion of the size of the lists. What is the maximum number of taxa that we can handle? Much discussion about size and priority ensued and two distinct poles of opinion emerged: Need to keep most of the current exemplar taxa listed as highest priority OR, The current list of exemplar taxa must also be prioritized. Debate on the topic of prioritizing continued. Several participants suggested that further prioritizing does NOT suggest that the ultimate goal of the GPPRCG (analysis [separate and meta-] of 400 to 600 taxa) should be diminished, but rather represents a pragmatic recognition of the time problem of acquiring certain classes of characters (e.g., ultrastructure). Thus, the prioritizing provides a futher focus for any researchers in the field. Exercise: what is the minimal number of taxa that should be prioritized? 18 Angiosperms 10 Other Seed plants 20 Ferns and fern allies 5 mosses 2 hornworts 5 liverworts 5 charophytes 20 chlorophytes 30-40 fossils G. Deadline for data availability matrix. Send exemplar taxa list immediately (September 1 [past due!]) Send exemplar taxon list to ASPT newsletter Data availability matrix should follow soon. (A template will be sent) H. What does the future hold? ****1997 Montreal (AIBS) -- Workshops for the fern and bryophyte groups are currently being planned. A workshop for the chlorophyte group will probably also be included. Leiden (International Phycological Congress) -- Symposium sponsored, in part, by the GPPRCG ****1998 Data Analysis Workshop (tentative) Chlorophyte Workshop (tentative) ****1999 International Botanical Congress -- Technical Symposia giving results of GPPRCG effort, hopefully accompanied by an edited book involving most participants. 4:59: ADJOURN FOR DINNER