Symposia
For more detailed information about the content of each symposium please contact the symposium organisers.
Download a list of the symposia as a word file.
1. Evolutionary systems biology
| Organisers: | Laurence Loewe, University of Edinburgh, UK (Laurence.Loewe@evolutionary-research.net) Balazs Papp, Biological Research Center, Hungary (pappb@brc.hu) |
| Description: | By bridging the genotype-phenotype gap, molecular systems biology approaches have the potential to provide new insights into eminent problems in evolutionary genetics including the adaptive landscape. Realistic computational models of biological systems that predict fitness correlates and their calibration with wet-lab data are vital for progress in the emerging field of evolutionary systems. |
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Laurence D. Hurst, University of Bath, UK "the EMBO lecture" |
2. From the selfish gene to species extinction: levels of selection in evolution
| Organisers: | Daniel J. Rankin, University of Bern, Switzerland (daniel.rankin@esh.unibe.ch) Kevin R. Foster, Harvard University, USA (kfoster@CGR.Harvard.edu) |
| Description: | This symposium will address the issue of levels of selection in evolution, including genes versus individual and individual versus group. We are particularly interested in exploring even higher levels of selection, as might occur in mutualisms and at the species level. |
| Invited speakers: | David Sloan Wilson, Binghamton University, United States Samir Okasha, University of Bristol, United Kingdom |
3. Are "good genes" theories of sexual selection finally sinking into the sunset?
| Organisers: | Mike Ritchie, University of St Andrews, UK (mgr@st-and.ac.uk) Nathan Bailey, University of California, USA (nathanb@ucr.edu) |
| Description: | “Good Genes” models have dominated studies in sexual selection but sexually antagonistic coevolution, GxE and indirect genetic effects question whether there are predictable genetic benefits for offspring despite extensive genetic variation; are good genes explanations necessary any more? |
| Invited speakers: | Anna Qvarnström, Uppsala University, Sweden Adam Chippindale, Queen's University, Canada |
4. The evolution of threshold, inducible and polyphenic traits
| Organisers: | Derek Roff, University of California, USA (derekr@ucr.edu) Wade Hazel, DePauw University, USA (wnh@depauw.edu) |
| Description: | We welcome theoretical and empirical contributions that explore the evolution, adaptive significance, proximate control or maintenance of discrete phenotypes that are not expressed as simple Mendelian alternatives. |
| Invited speakers: | Bradley Anholt, University of Victoria, Canada Kathleen Donohue, Duke University, USA |
5. Diversity of host-microbe symbioses
| Organisers: | Maurizio Casiraghi, Università degli Studi di Milano Bicocca, Italy (maurizio.casiraghi@unimib.it) Hinrich Schulenburg, University of Tuebingen, Germany (hinrich.schulenburg@uni-tuebingen.de) Telmo Pievani, Università degli Studi di Milano Bicocca, Italy (telmo.pievani@unimib.it) Christian Braendle, Centre d'Immunologie de Marseille, France (braendle@ciml.univ-mrs.fr) |
| Description: | This symposium evaluates the role of symbiotic microorganisms on the evolution of their multicellular hosts – with a specific focus on the microbes' taxonomic diversity as well as their function in determining host fitness and speciation rates. |
| Invited speakers: | Claudio Bandi, Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy Thomas Bosch, Kiel University, Germany |
6. The evolution of conflict and cooperation: when theory meets data
| Organisers: | Suzanne Alonzo, Yale University, USA (Suzanne.Alonzo@yale.edu) Stuart West, University of Edinburgh, UK (Stu.West@ed.ac.uk) |
| Description: | This symposium examines the synergy between theory and data for our understanding of social evolution in empirical systems on topics ranging from cooperation among relatives to conflict between the sexes. |
| Invited speakers: | Michael Cant, University of Exeter Cornwall, UK Andy Gardner, University of Edinburgh, UK Allen Moore, University of Exeter Conrwall, UK |
7. Evolutionary applications: a symposium sponsored by Wiley-Blackwell Publishing
| Organisers: | Louis Bernatchez, Université Laval, Canada (Louis.Bernatchez@bio.ulaval.ca) Dany Garant, Université de Sherbrooke, Canada (Dany.Garant@USherbrooke.ca) |
| Description: | This symposium will highlight the relevance of evolutionary concepts to address issues of health, social and economic relevance by conveying top researchers actively involved in studies such as evolutionary medicine, selective harvesting, spread of pathogens, invasive species, and climate change. |
| Invited speakers: | Stephen Stearns, Yale University, USA Dieter Ebert, Univeristy of Basel, Switzerland Juha Merilä, University of Helsinki, Finland |
8. Male-female coevolution - from molecules to species
| Organisers: | Claudia Fricke, University of East Anglia, UK (C.Fricke@uea.ac.uk) Tracey Chapman, University of East Anglia, UK (Tracey.Chapman@uea.ac.uk) |
| Description: | This symposium will provide a synthesis of recent advances in our understanding of male - female coevolution, covering evolution in molecular, morphological and physiological traits; the role of sexual selection and sexual conflict in driving these changes will be investigated. |
| Invited speakers: | Mariana F. Wolfner, Cornell University, USA Kerry L. Shaw, Cornell University, USA Mohamed Noor, Duke University, USA |
9. On the origins of novelty in development and evolution: from cryptic genetic variation to genetic accommodation
| Organisers: | Armin P. Moczek, Indiana University, USA (armin@indiana.edu) Emilie Snell-Rood, Indiana University, USA (emcsnell@indiana.edu) |
| Description: | Specifically, we will explore the interplay between developmental capacitance, cryptic genetic variation, and genetic accommodation in mediating, guiding as well as constraining, organismal innovation and diversification |
| Invited speakers: | Andreas Wagner, University of Zurich, Switzerland Susan A. Foster, Clark University, USA Ian Dworkin, Michigan State University, USA |
10. Ecological genetics in the genomics era
| Organisers: | Christopher W. Wheat, University of Helsinki, Finland (cww10@psu.edu) Jay F. Storz, University of Nebraska, USA (jstorz2@unl.edu) |
| Description: | This session focuses on research integrating ecology, molecular biology, and evolution with the goal of understanding how genetic variation affects performance and fitness in the wild. |
| Invited speakers: | John Slate, Univeristy of Sheffield, UK Thomas Lenormand, Université Montpellier, France |
11. The phenotype-fitness map re-visited: agents of selection and the importance of ecology in evolutionary studies
| Organisers: | Alexis Chaine, CNRS, France (alexis.chaine@ecoex-moulis.cnrs.fr) Erik Svensson, Lund University, Sweden (erik.svensson@zooekol.lu.se) |
| Description: | This symposium aims to assemble evolutionary studies that seek to identify, understand and describe the agents of natural and/or sexual selection, and the specific environmental factors, such as food resources, social environments, predation, among others that shape the selective landscape. |
| Invited speakers: | Stevan Arnold, Oregon State University, USA Craig Benkmann, University of Wyoming, USA |
12. The genetic consequences of reproductive modes: insights from asexual species
| Organisers: | Karine Van Doninck, University of Namur, Belgium (kvandoni@fundp.ac.be) Diego Fontaneto, Imperial College London, UK (d.fontaneto@imperial.ac.uk) |
| Description: | This symposium will explore experimental work that has started to unravel the evolution of asexual reproduction at the genetic level. |
| Invited speakers: | David Mark Welch, Marine Biological Laboratory, USA Shannon Hedtke, Univeristy of Texas, USA |
13. Evolution of time-keeping mechanisms
| Organisers: | Rinaldo C. Bertossa, University of Groningen, The Netherlands (r.c.bertossa@rug.nl) Gabriella Mazzotta, University of Padova, Italy (gabriella.mazzotta@unipd.it) |
| Description: | The symposium explores the relationship between the evolution of time-keeping mechanisms – of the endogenous clock in particular – and hereon dependent life history traits (circadian rhythms, diapause, migration…): Are similar chronobiological needs in different species met by similar genetic solutions? |
| Invited speakers: | Rodolfo Costa, University of Padova, Italy Urs Albrecht, University of Fribourg, Switzerland |
14. Selection in subdivided populations
| Organisers: | J. de Meaux, Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding, Germany (demeaux@mpiz-koeln.mpg.de) P.K. Ingvarsson, Umeå University, Sweden (par.ingvarsson@emg.umu.se) |
| Description: | The topic of our symposium is to characterize patterns of population structure and environmental heterogeneities to study how natural selection shapes phenotypic and molecular evolution in subdivided populations. |
| Invited speakers: | Johanna Schmitt, Brown University, USA Jérôme Goudet, University of Lausanne, Switzerland |
15. Evolutionary transcriptomics
| Organisers: | John Parsch, University of Munich, Germany (parsch@bio.lmu.de) Lino Ometto, University of Lausanne, Switzerland (lino.ometto@unil.ch) |
| Description: | This symposium will focus on genome-wide analysis of gene expression, with emphasis on the genetic mechanisms, ecological conditions, and selective forces responsible for expression variation within species and/or expression divergence between species. |
| Invited speakers: | Sergey V. Nuzhdin, University of Southern California, USA Duccio Cavalieri, University of Florence, Italy |
16. Recent advances in macroevolutionary approaches to evolutionary studies
| Organisers: | Francesco Santini, University of California at Los Angese, USA (santini@eeb.ucla.edu) |
| Description: | This symposium will discuss the use of molecular phylogenies in combination with ecological, biogeographical, paleontological and statigraphic data to investigate both the patterns of diversification and the processes that may have caused evolutionary radiations. |
| Invited speakers: | Michael E. Alfaro, University of California, USA John J. Wiens, State University of New York at Stony Brook, USA |
17. Integrating ecology with parasite evolution
| Organisers: | Sarah Reece, University of Edinburgh, UK (Sarah.Reece@ed.ac.uk) Jacobus de Roode, Emory University, USA (jacobus.deroode@emory.edu) |
| Description: | This symposium will explore how the ecological conditions under which hosts and parasites interact influence the evolution of parasites. |
| Invited speakers: | Mike Boots, University of Sheffield, UK Anna-Liisa Laine, University of Helsinky, Finland |
18. Frontiers in speciation research: proximal and causal mechanisms of behavioural divergence
| Organisers: | Carole Smadja, University of Sheffield, UK (c.smadja@sheffield.ac.uk) Anneli Hoikkala, University of Jyväskylä, Finland (anhoikka@bytl.jyu.fi) Roger Butlin, University of Sheffield, UK (r.k.butlin@sheffield.ac.uk) |
| Co-organiser: | Axel Meyer, University of Konstanz, Germany (axel.meyer@uni-konstanz.de) |
| Description: | This symposium addresses behaviours involved in reproductive isolation and the recent progress made in assessing the mechanisms of behaviour divergence: from the factors promoting behavioural divergence to the proximal mechanisms (genomics, neuro-physiology, signal characterisation.), an integrated view of behavioural divergence that is emerging. This symposium is supported by the European Networking Programme on Frontiers in Speciation Research (froSpects) coordinated by the European Science Foundation (ESF). |
| Invited speakers: | Jeffrey Feder, University of Notre Dame, USA Mark Blows, University of Queensland, Australia Glenn-Peter Sætre, University of Oslo, Norway (ESF - FroSpects invited speaker) Florian Schiestl, ETH Zürich, Switzerland (ESF - FroSpects invited speaker) Katie Peichel, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, USA (ESF - FroSpects invited speaker) |
19. Genetic trade-offs in fitness-traits: theory, evidence, and implications
| Organisers: | Katharina Foerster, University of Lausanne, Switzerland (Katharina.Foerster@unil.ch) Alastair Wilson, University of Edinburgh, UK (alastair.wilson@ed.ac.uk) |
| Description: | Bringing together theoreticians, geneticists and evolutionary ecologists, we will examine the genetic relationships among fitness related traits and discuss their role for selective trade-offs, evolutionary trajectories, and the maintenance of genetic diversity; with examples spanning laboratory systems and natural populations. |
| Invited speakers: | Derek Roff, University of California, USA Erik Svensson, Lund University, Sweden |
20. Selective forces shaping transitions to social life
| Organisers: | Trine Bilde, University of Aarhus, Denmark (Trine.Bilde@biology.au.dk) Patrizia d'Ettorre, University of Copenhagen, Denmark (pdettorre@bio.ku.dk) |
| Description: | This symposium aims at identifying and integrating the general principles underlying transitions to social life across a broad range of taxa, in order to advance our understanding of both the proximate and ultimate forces underlying these major transitions in evolution. |
| Invited speakers: | Ashleigh Griffin, University of Edinburgh, UK Jacobus J. Boomsma, University of Copenhagen, Denmark |
21. Intralocus sexual conflict: detection, resolution and consequences
| Organisers: | Adam Chippindale, Queen's University, Canada (chippind@biology.queensu.ca) Steve Clenoweth, University of Queensland, Australia (s.chenoweth@uq.edu.au) |
| Description: | The symposium explores the proposition that sex-specific selection on loci shared by females and males creates a genetic load that depresses the fitness of sexual populations, and that a distinct suite of genetic mechanisms have evolved to remediate this conflict. |
| Invited speakers: | Goran Arnqvist, Uppsala University, Sweden Barry Sinervo, University of California, USA |
22. Inbreeding depression: from gene expression to population viability
| Organisers: | Bengt Hansson, Lund University, Sweden (bengt.hansson@zooekol.lu.se) Sara Naurin, Lund University, Sweden (sara.naurin@zooekol.lu.se) |
| Description: | Effects of inbreeding on gene and population levels: genetic mechanism of inbreeding depression; effects of inbreeding on gene expression; environmental stress and context-dependent inbreeding depression; and inbreeding depression, population viability and extinction vortices. |
| Invited speakers: | Torsten Nygaard Kristensen, University of Aarhus, Denmark Erik Postma, University of Zurich-Irchel, Switzerland |
23. Ecological consequences of polyploidy in plants and animals
| Organisers: | Barbara Mable, University of Glasgow, UK (b.mable@bio.gla.ac.uk) Marc Stift, University of Glasgow, UK (m.stift@bio.gla.ac.uk) |
| Description: | Our symposium will focus on the effects of polyploidy on ecological adaptation, with the goal of bringing together researchers that work on polyploidy in different groups, including (but not necessarily limited to) plants, fishes, amphibians, planarians and crustaceans. |
| Invited speakers: | Brian Husband, University of Guelph, Canada France Dufresne, Université du Québec à Rimouski, Canada |
24. Functional analysis of natural variation
| Organisers: | Christian Schlötterer, University of Vienna, Austria (christian.schloetterer@vu-wien.ac.at) Alistair McGregor, University of Vienna, Austria (alistair.mcgregor@vu-wien.ac.at) Jean-Michel Gibert, University of Geneva, Switzerland (Jean-Michel.Gibert@zoo.unige.ch) |
| Description: | The symposium aims to gather researchers using the latest technology to identify adaptive variation in natural populations and those using a broad range of methods to functionally characterize natural variation in a wide range of organisms. |
| Invited speakers: | Vincent Coustham, John Innes Centre, UK Rowan Barret, University of British Columbia, Canada |
25. Recent advances in kin selection
| Organisers: | Francisco Ubeda, University of Tennessee at Knoxville, USA (fubeda@utk.edu) Andy Gardner, University of Edinburgh, UK (andy.gardner@ed.ac.uk) |
| Description: | In this symposium we will discuss recent advances in Kin Selection Theory including the evolution of altruism and spite, intragenomic conflict, and social evolution. |
| Invited speakers: | Alan Grafen, Oxford University, UK Stuart West, University of Edinburgh, UK |
26. Post-genomic approaches to host-parasite evolution (a symposium sponsored by "Molecular Ecology")
| Organisers: | Steve Paterson, University of Liverpool, UK (s.paterson@liv.ac.uk) Stuart Piertney, University of Aberdeen, UK (s.piertney@abdn.ac.uk) |
| Description: | This symposium will highlight recent, exciting insights gained by the application of novel, post-genomic methods to the study of host-parasite evolution in both model and non-model systems. |
| Invited speakers: | Bregje Werteim, University of Groningen, the Netherlands Fracis Jiggins, University of Cambridge, UK |
27. Early evolution
| Organisers: | Renato Fani, University of Florence, Italy (renato.fani@unifi.it) Simonetta Gribaldo, Institut Pasteur, France (simo@pasteur.fr) |
| Description: | We will discuss the different hypotheses about early events in the origin and evolution of the three extant cellular lines, Bacteria, Archaea, and Eukarya in the light of the most recent results from comparative genomics and molecular phylogeny. |
| Invited speakers: | Purification Lopez-Garcia, Université Paris-Sud, France Paola Londei, Università La Sapienza, Italy |
28. Pollinator-mediated selection in floral evolution
| Organisers: | Yuval Sapir, Tel Aviv University, Israel (sapiry@post.tau.ac.il) Scott Armbruster, University of Portsmouth, UK - University of Alaska, USA (scott.armbruster@port.ac.uk) |
| Description: | Floral evolution is a multilayered process involving many components simultaneously – from quantitative genetics and pollinator-mediated selection, to community ecology. This symposium provides a forum for an integrative understanding of evolutionary aspects of pollination, from trait genetics, pollinator behavior, and selection, to the phylogeny and biogeography of pollination systems. |
| Invited speakers: | Thomas Hansen, University of Oslo, Norway Stacey Smith, Duke University, United States |
29. Evolution of shape: linking micro- and macroevolution
| Organisers: | Andrea Cardini, Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Italy (cardini@unimo.it) Christian Peter Klingenberg, University of Manchester, UK (cpk@manchester.ac.uk) |
| Description: | The presentations in the symposium illustrate how morphometric variation can be used as a 'common currency' to study evolution from the perspectives of various disciplines: palaeontology, genetics, ecology, and development. |
| Invited speakers: | Leandro Monteiro, University of Hull, UK Anjali Goswami, University College London, UK |
30. Hybrid speciation
| Organisers: | Diethard Tautz, Max-Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, Germany (tautz@evolbio.mpg.de) James Mallet, University College London, UK (j.mallet@ucl.ac.uk) |
| Description: | The goal of this symposium is to discuss the role of hybridization in speciation and adaptive evolution with a focus on studies linking the molecular genetics of hybridization and introgression with the emergence of new adaptations. |
| Invited speakers: | Loren H. Rieseberg, Indiana University, USA Chris C. Nice, Texas State University, USA |
31. The evolution of development across the species boundary
| Organisers: | Giuseppe Fusco, University of Padova, Italy (giuseppe.fusco@unipd.it) Alessandro Minelli, University of Padova, Italy (alessandro.minelli@unipd.it) |
| Description: | This symposium will explore the hitherto neglected relationships between the evolution of development and microevolution, with emphasis on speciation. This approach is largely complementary to the traditional focus on comparisons between distantly related model organisms. |
| Invited speakers: | Artyom, Kopp, University of California at Davis, United States Barbara Gravendeel, University of Leiden, The Netherlands |
