Journal of Systematics and EvolutionVolume 56, Issue 2 p. 79-80 EditorialFree Access Awards of JSE Outstanding Papers (2016) First published: 25 March 2018 https://doi.org/10.1111/jse.12308Citations: 1AboutSectionsPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL In September of 2014, we held a successful editors’ meeting and decided to establish awards of JSE Outstanding Papers as one of the strategies to improve the quality of JSE in the coming years (Ge & Wen, 2015). The awards consist of two categories (i.e., the JSE Outstanding Papers and JSE Young Investigators’ Awards) and have been presented to the 20 most cited papers published in the period of 2008–2013, and four papers per year published in 2014 and 2015 to recognize the important impact of these papers in systematics and evolution (Ge & Wen, 2015, 2016). We herein announce the four papers to receive the two awards for 2016 and highlight the significance of these papers. JSE Outstanding Papers for 2016 PPG I. 2016. A community-derived classification for extant lycophytes and ferns Lycophytes and ferns—often referred to collectively as pteridophytes—are two distinct evolutionary lineages that share a unique life cycle with independent gametophyte and sporophyte phases. Despite great efforts, classifications of these vascular plants were often conflicting due to a paucity of information on pteridophyte relationships and a lack of consensus regarding patterns of morphological evolution. Utilizing a community-based approach, this study provides a modern, comprehensive classification for lycophytes and ferns. This classification, treating an estimated 11 916 species in 337 genera, 51 families, 14 orders, and two classes of pteridophytes, provides a summary statement of current hypotheses and an important framework for guiding future investigations on pteridophytes and beyond. Chen Z-D et al. 2016. Tree of life for the genera of Chinese vascular plants The tree of life or phylogenetics has been an essential framework in evolutionary biology. In July 2016, a JSE special issue entitled “The Tree of Life: China Project” was published, including 11 papers involving the “giant” phylogeny of the Chinese vascular plants (Chen et al., 2016a). As one of the important contributions, this study (Chen et al., 2016b) used sequences of the chloroplast genes atpB, matK, ndhF, and rbcL and mitochondrial matR to reconstruct a phylogenetic tree of Chinese vascular plants involving 6098 species in 3114 genera of 323 families. As the first large-scale phylogenetic study on Chinese plants, this work supports most relationships among and within families recognized by recent molecular phylogenetic studies for major lineages of vascular plants and showed some new relationships at the familial level and within families. Moreover, the authors have made the phylogeny of Chinese vascular plants publically available, which provides a useful tool for non-taxonomists in ecological and other studies. JSE Outstanding Papers by Young Investigators for 2016 Grusz AL. 2016. A current perspective on apomixis in ferns Although substantial progress has been made in our understanding of apomixis in ferns during the last decade, the origin of apomictic taxa and the reproductive mode are still undetermined for most ferns. This study reviewed essential aspects of apomixis in ferns by three sections: (1) What Is Apomixis in Ferns? (2) Apomixis in Ferns, since 2004; (3) Apomixis in Ferns, beyond 2016. The author summarized the apomictic fern life cycle, discussed the recent trends in fern apomixis research and the gaps in our understanding of the extent and implications of recombinant apomixis in ferns as well as proposed future directions for fern apomixis research in the context of modern technological advances and recent insights from studies of apomixis in other groups. The review provides an excellent synopsis of apogamous reproduction in ferns and highlights the important progress made in recent studies of fern apomixis. Zhang T et al. 2016. Fifteen novel universal primer pairs for sequencing whole chloroplast genomes and a primer pair for nuclear ribosomal DNAs As a supplementary tool to morphology-based taxonomy, the DNA barcoding technique has been successfully used to characterize biological diversity of vascular plants (Kress, 2017). This study presented a new set of 15 universal primer pairs for amplifying angiosperm whole chloroplast genomes to complement the nine primer pairs that the authors published previously (Yang et al., 2014). They validated the functionality of these primers by testing 44 species with silica gel-dried leaves and 15 species with fresh leaves. The results showed that the whole chloroplast genome can be successfully amplified in 65.9% of the species with silica gel-dried leaves and all species with fresh leaves. This study demonstrates that the 15 universal primer set is an important supplement to the tools for chloroplast genomic and DNA barcoding research. In conclusion, we are very proud that Journal of Systematics and Evolution has published these high-quality papers, and hope that our journal continues to attract important papers and well serve the community in plant systematics and evolution in the coming years. Song Ge, [email protected] Jun Wen, [email protected] Editors-in-Chief References Chen ZD, Lu AM, Zhang SZ, Wang QF, Liu ZJ, Li DZ, Ma H, Li JH, Soltis DE, Soltis PS, Wen J, China Phylogeny Consortium. 2016a. The Tree of Life: China project. Journal of Systematics and Evolution 54: 273– 276. Chen ZD, Yang T, Lin L, Lu LM, Li HL, Sun M, Liu B, Chen M, Niu YT, Ye JF, Cao ZY, Liu HM, Wang XM, Wang W, Zhang JB, Meng Z, Cao W, Li JH, Wu SD, Zhao HL, Liu ZJ, Du ZY, Wang QF, Guo J, Tan XX, Su JX, Zhang LJ, Yang LL, Liao YY, Li MH, Zhang GQ, Chung SW, Zhang J, Xiang KL, Li RQ, Soltis DE, Soltis PS, Zhou SL, Ran JH, Wang XQ, Jin XH, Chen YS, Gao TG, Li JH, Zhang SZ, Lu AM, China Phylogeny Consortium. 2016b. Tree of life for the genera of Chinese vascular plants. Journal of Systematics and Evolution 54: 277– 306. Ge S, Wen J. 2015. Announcement of the awards of JSE Outstanding Papers. Journal of Systematics and Evolution 53: 281– 284. Ge S, Wen J. 2016. Awards of JSE Outstanding Papers (2014 and 2015). Journal of Systematics and Evolution 54: 189– 190. Grusz AL. 2016. A current perspective on apomixis in ferns. Journal of Systematics and Evolution 54: 656– 665. Kress WJ. 2017. Plant DNA barcodes: Applications today and in the future. Journal of Systematics and Evolution 55: 291– 307. PPG I. 2016. A community-derived classification for extant lycophytes and ferns. Journal of Systematics and Evolution 54: 563– 603. Yang JB, Li DZ, Li HT. 2014. Highly effective sequencing whole chloroplast genomes of angiosperms by nine novel universal primer pairs. Molecular Ecology Resources 14: 1024– 1031. Zhang T, Zeng CX, Yang JB, Li HT, Li DZ. 2016. Fifteen novel universal primer pairs for sequencing whole chloroplast genomes and a primer pair for nuclear ribosomal DNAs. Journal of Systematics and Evolution 54: 219– 227. Citing Literature Volume56, Issue2March 2018Pages 79-80 ReferencesRelatedInformation