Experimental evolution across the microbe/macrobe divide
ESEB 2011 Meeting(European Society for Evolutionary Biology meeting, Tuebingen, Germany 20-25 August 2011).
Symposium description: Experimental evolution is one of the most powerful approaches available for the study of microevolutionary processes and has been used since the early age of evolutionary biology and genetics. It offers the possibility to study a very broad range of problems from enzyme efficiency to ecosystem organisation, from adaptation to changing environment to antidrug resistance evolution and from ageing to host-pathogen coevolution. Experimental evolution, as any method, has some favourite experimental models but they represent a great biological diversity: virus, prokaryotes, unicellular eukaryotes and multicellular animals and plants. This biological diversity translates into diversity in generation time and mutation rate, which in turns translate into a diversity of genetic mechanisms underlying the phenotypic changes observed. The goal of the proposed symposium is to bring together scientists using experimental evolution of a variety of organisms and to ask very different biological questions, so as to favour exchange around the commons and potentials of this method. Moreover this symposium will be a great opportunity to highlight how emerging next generation techniques can be combined with EE for greater understanding of the genetic basis of evolution.
Invited speakers:Graham Bell (McGill University), Richard E. Lenski (Michigan State), Tadeusz Kawecki (University of Lausanne)
Organizers:Rhonda R. Snook, Sheffield, Nick Colegrave, Edinburgh, Thomas U. Berendonk, Dresden,Oliver Kaltz, Montpellier, Stéphanie Bedhomme, Valencia, Santiago F. Elena