Format: ORAL

Darren M. Crayn1, Lalita Simpson1, Theodore R. Allnutt2, William J. Baker3, Matt Barrett1, Gillian Brown4, Flix Forest3, Chris Jackson2, Lizzy Joyce5, Paul J. Kersey3, Mabel Lum6, Olivier Maurin3, Todd G.B. McLay7, Daniel J. Murphy2, Katharina Nargar1, Herv Sauquet8, Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn9, Kelly A. Shepherd10, Andrew Thornhill11, Michelle Waycott12

1 Australian Tropical Herbarium, James Cook University, Smithfield, Australia 2 Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, Melbourne, Australia 3 Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, United Kingdom 4 Queensland Herbarium, Toowong, Australia 5 Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich, Munich, Germany 6 Bioplatforms Australia, Sydney, Australia 7 National Biodiversity DNA Library, CSIRO, Parkville, Australia 8 Botanic Gardens of Sydney, Mt Annan, Australia 9 Centre for Australian National Biodiversity Research, Canberra, Australia 10 Western Australian Herbarium, Perth, Australia 11 University of New England, Armidale, Australia 12 State Herbarium of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia

Australia, the worlds smallest continent has a globally significant flora comprising over 2,100 genera and 21,000 native species of flowering plants, of which over 90% are endemic. The Genomics for Australian Plants (GAP) Initiative, catalysed by Bioplatforms Australia in partnership with researchers from the Australian State and National Herbaria and Botanic Gardens, aims to develop genomics resources to enhance our understanding of the evolution of this unique flora and support its conservation. GAP Phylogenomics, one of three GAP activity streams, has the long-term goal of resolving the Australian Angiosperm Tree of Life (AAToL) to species level. To date, this inclusive project has brought together over 70 Australian researchers and herbarium staff and partnered with the global Plant and Fungal Trees of Life project (PAFTOL) to complete AAToL Stage 1 reconstructing a phylogenetic tree including at least one species exemplar of nearly 95% of Australian native angiosperm genera sequenced for a common set of hundreds of nuclear markers (using the Angiosperms353 target capture baits). However, because sampling is strongly biased due to being geographically constrained, the range of applications of this continental tree in evolutionary biology is limited.