• Korean Journal of Plant Taxonomy
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.1-15
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• 2010

Recognizing a basal group in a taxon is one of the most important factors involved in understanding the evolutionary history of that group of life. Many botanists have suggested a sister to all other angiosperms to understand the origin and rapid diversification of angiosperms based on morphological and fossil evidence. Recent technical advances in molecular biology and the accumulation of molecular phylogenetic data have provided evidence of the extant basal-most angiosperm which is a sister to all other angiosperms. Although it is still arguable, most plant taxonomists agree that Amborella trichopoda Baill., a species (monotypic genus and monotypic family) distributed in New Caledonia, is a sister to all other extant angiosperms based on evidence from the following molecular approaches: 1) classical phylogenetic analyses based on multiple genes (or DNA regions), 2) analyses of a tree network of duplicated gene families, and 3) gene-structural evidence. As an alternative hypothesis with relatively minor evidence, some researchers have also suggested that Amborella and Nymphaeaceae form a clade that is a sister to all other angiosperms. Debate regarding the basal-most angiosperms is still ongoing and is currently one of the hot issues in plant evolutionary biology. We expect that sequencing of the whole genome of Amborella as an evolutionary model plant and subsequent studies based on this genome sequence will provide information regarding the origin and rapid diversification of angiosperms, which is Darwin's so called abominable mystery.

• Korean Journal of Plant Taxonomy
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.197-222
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• 2008

A recently published Korean Flora, "The genera of vascular plants of Korea (GFK)", includes the descriptions and keys for 217 families, 1,044 genera, and 3,209 species of Korean vascular plants. We reclassified these taxa according to the recent APG classification system, which resulted in 64 orders, 204 families, 1,044 genera and 3,209 species. Twenty-two families from the GFK were abandoned because of changes to the familial delimitations in the APG system. In contrast, the number of families in the Liliaceous group was increased. The Liliaceae in the GFK included 31 genera and 109 species. These taxa are now assigned to 10 families in four different orders including Liliales, Asparagales, Alismatales, and Dioscoreales because of the drastic changes to the monocot classification system in the past 20 years. In addition, the family name of the Aucubaceae was changed to Garryaceae. As a result, the number of families in the GFK has been reduced to 204. The results were summarized in four tables and two figures at the levels of unofficial higher taxonomic hierarchies, orders, families and genera. This new information can provide a guidelines for selecting the phylogenetic analysis unit for the Korean tree of life (KTOL) project. Futhermore, the updated classification system also provides an important summarization for the systematic community for placing the Korean flora in a modern phylogenetic context.