Person:
Mathews, Sarah

Profile Picture

Email Address

AA Acceptance Date

Birth Date

Research Projects

Organizational Units

Job Title

Last Name

Mathews

First Name

Sarah

Name

Mathews, Sarah

Filters

2012 - 20142

Settings

Author's Publications: search.filters.isAuthorOfPublication.940d947a-788f-4a88-b47d-01b1116c109e

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Thumbnail Image
    Publication
    The evolution of reproductive structures in seed plants: a re-examination based on insights from developmental genetics
    (Wiley-Blackwell, 2012) Mathews, Sarah; Kramer, Elena
    The study of developmental genetics is providing insights into how plant morphology can and does evolve, and into the fundamental nature of specific organs. This new understanding has the potential to revise significantly the way we think about seed plant evolution, especially with regard to reproductive structures. Here, we have sought to take a step in bridging the divide between genetic data and critical fields such as paleobotany and systematics. We discuss the evidence for several evolutionarily important interpretations, including the possibility that ovules represent meristematic axes with their own type of lateral determinate organs (integuments) and a model that considers carpels as analogs of complex leaves. In addition, we highlight the aspects of reproductive development that are likely to be highly labile and homoplastic, factors that have major implications for the understanding of seed plant relationships. Although these hypotheses may suggest that some long-standing interpretations are misleading, they also open up whole new avenues for comparative study and suggest concrete best practices for evolutionary analyses of development.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Publication
    Plastid phylogenomics and green plant phylogeny: almost full circle but not quite there
    (BioMed Central, 2014) Davis, Charles; Xi, Zhenxiang; Mathews, Sarah
    A study in BMC Evolutionary Biology represents the most comprehensive effort to clarify the phylogeny of green plants using sequences from the plastid genome. This study highlights the strengths and limitations of plastome data for resolving the green plant phylogeny, and points toward an exciting future for plant phylogenetics, during which the vast and largely untapped territory of nuclear genomes will be explored.