Interesting article on Cactus Classification

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DaveW
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Interesting article on Cactus Classification

Post by DaveW »

See:-

http://www.zora.uzh.ch/43285/1/Nyffeler1.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
peterb
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Re: Interesting article on Cactus Classification

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It has been fascinating to follow the molecular phylogenetics work of a very few scientists. I think there are some amazing breakthroughs but I also strongly suspect that much of the publication has been premature and will be either overturned or greatly revised as more sophisticated and detailed data becomes available (I was just in an email exchange with one of these lab wizards who rejects almost all of Nyfeller's "revelatory" findings using a different set of molecular data, rebuttal to be published in 2014). This does not mean the earliest work has been useless or whatever, just that it will of course eventually be squared with morphology and geography, as is only logical from a holistic point of view. Additionally, the debate over where to draw species lines will probably never be solved by phylogenetics. IMO, the species confusion is the single most pressing issue in all of botany, not just the Cactus Family. Other tools and arguments will have to be used in addition to molecular data and organisms at the species level or below will perhaps always be classed according to informed opinion and the author's philosophy of what a species is.

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BobbyZ
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Re: Interesting article on Cactus Classification

Post by BobbyZ »

Peter: Thanks for the link. I have been interested is seeing a molecular genetic approach to the notocactus/parodia breadown. I see the sequence alignment for several notocactus species. This is alot to ingest. I was amazed by an initial paper by R.S. Wallace in Cati biology and uses by Nobel Parker. Now I have something to realy imerse bnyself in. Many thanks again. It would be nice to be a grad student or postdoc once again and do some fun biology. Bobby Z
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