October 1997: Issue 12

Welcome to the seventh edition of Kew Scientist to be made available on the Internet. If you have any comments or suggestions, please email them to Dr Geoff Kite

Features in this issue:

Director's Message: Systematics

The focus of this issue is on systematics, the core of our scientific work at Kew and the discipline that is the fundamental basis for all work with plants or any other organisms. Systematics describes, names, classifies and produces the means whereby plants can be identified. Without this the plant user would be lost and the scientist unable to repeat an experiment with certainty that he or she had the same plant. We are engaged in the great variety of systematics projects that are reported on here, and in many others which space does not permit to include, because systematics is fundamental to our mission to increase knowledge and understanding of the plant kingdom.

I am impressed by the vitality of our work in systematics as I attend various conferences such as the 1996 and 1997 annual meetings of the American Institute of Biological Sciences where papers by Kew authors abounded. The recent systematics meetings held in Glasgow and Oxford in August were also well supported by Kew systematists and in the later meeting, sponsored by the Systematics Association, 27 per cent of the total papers presented had a Kew author on them, and they were significant and interesting papers on systematics and evolution. This is an indication of a lively programme of productive scientists who are getting their work out to their scientific colleagues.

Our systematics programme is strong because it combines the traditional herbarium and library based studies with the more experimental such as pollen, anatomy, chromosome and genome work, phytochemistry and more recently cladistics and molecular systematics. Examples of several of these approaches are reported on here. Furthermore our systematics research is backed up by our rich collections, a seven million specimen herbarium, over 35,000 taxa in the living collections and an outstanding library.

In Kew 2020 we have set ourselves challenging goals to complete our current flora commitments expeditiously, to expand our programme of monographic research through the study of critical groups of plants, to broaden our current programme into a wider international collaboration to produce a new classification of higher plants, and to computerise the herbarium collection. Above all, the goal of Kew 2020 to continue first class research in systematic botany sets our pathway for the future. The recent establishment of an Information Services Department will help facilitate these ambitious goals.

Contact Prof. Sir Ghillean T. Prance, Director

Email: Ghillean Prance

Minister Visits Kew

The Minister of State for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Jeffrey Rooker MP, visited Kew on 15 September 1997. His responsibilities at MAFF, Kew's sponsoring Ministry, include plant science policy. Accompanied by the Director and the Chairman of the Kew Trustees, Mr Robin Herbert CBE, the Minister met many staff working on Kew's science programmes in the Herbarium and the Jodrell Laboratory. He also saw science facilities recently funded by MAFF, including the newly upgraded Melon Yard glasshouse complex and ongoing work to extend wing D of the Herbarium.


Jeffrey Rooker MP (centre) meeting the Director (left) and Prof. Simon Owens

AWARDS

David Pegler and Hugh Pritchard have both been awarded the title of Visiting Professor from Jilin Agricultural University, PR China. David has also been made a Centenary Fellow of the British Mycological Society and elected as a Member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.

Three Kew-based PhD students recently defended their theses successfully. In collaborative projects with King's College London, Fiona Hay (Kew-funded) researched the development of seed longevity in wild plants and Harry Gee (Sir Jeremiah Colman Gift Trust-funded) worked on molecular markers for desiccation tolerance in seeds. Lastly, Ginny Saunders (BBSRC-CASE student, Hull University) examined the influence of dsRNA elements in orchid mycorrhizal fungi on symbiosis. A former Kew Diploma student, Tim Upson, who undertook some of his doctoral research into Lavandula taxonomy at Kew, has also obtained a PhD at Reading University.

GENOME SIZE

Workshop
Eighteen scientists (from Argentina, Austria, Czech Republic, India, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, UK and USA) attended the Kew Discovery Workshop on 'Angiosperm Genome Size' (9-10 September 1997). They discussed best practice, identified gaps and set goals for new research to improve taxonomic and geographic representation of this important biodiversity character for the global flora. The group strongly endorsed the new Angiosperm DNA C-values database (available on the internet at www.rbgkew.org.uk/cval/database1.html), recommending that Kew continues to update this valuable information service.

and Discussion Meeting
On 11-12 September, 86 participants from 15 countries attended a discussion meeting on the same topic also hosted by RBG Kew. Sessions with 22 oral and 40 poster papers addressed aspects of genome size, including its systematic and ecological significance, intraspecific variation, and mechanisms of change.

Mike Bennett (right) with delegates at the Genome Size meeting

Contact: Prof. Mike Bennett (0181-332 5311)

Kew Scientist

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 3AB.

Tel: 0181 332 5000 Fax: 0181 332 5310

Editor: Prof Mike Bennett

Production Editor: Dr Geoff Kite

Editorial Advisory Team:

Herbarium: Dr P. Cribb, D. Field, Dr N. Hind, P. Boyce, N. McGough, Dr A. Paton

Jodrell Laboratory: Prof M. Bennett, Dr P. Rudall, Dr A. Cox, Dr G. Kite, Dr R. Probert

Living Collections: M. Maunder, Dr M. Fay, A. Jackson, M. Sinnott, J. Lonsdale

Internet Editor: Tony Cox (Jodrell Laboratory)

Published twice yearly in April and October

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