Symposia Overview
| 1: Experimental evolution across the microbe/macrobe divide | |
| Symposium organisers: | Rhonda R. Snook, Sheffield eMail-Link Nick Colegrave, Edinburgh eMail-Link Thomas U. Berendock, Dresden eMail-Link Oliver Kaltz, Montpellier eMail-Link Stéphanie Bedhomme, Valéncia eMail-Link Santiago F. Elena, València eMail-Link |
| Symposium description | Experimental evolution (EE) is a tool that has provided advances in understanding fundamental evolutionary questions in real time. The symposium goals are to (i) illustrate the diversity of uses of EE encompassing both microbial and macrobial systems and/or (ii) 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) |
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| 2: Coevolution across the parasitism-mutualism continuum | |
| Symposium organisers: | Michael Brockhurst, Liverpool eMail-Link Britt Koskella, Oxford eMail-Link |
| Symposium description | Predicting transitions across the parasitism-mutualism continuum, from highly virulent pathogens to beneficial endosymbionts, requires both a thorough theoretical understanding and detailed empirical testing using a number of systems. This symposium will address new experimental and theoretical approaches to the study of host-symbiont coevolution across the parasitism-mutualism continuum, with a focus on developing a unified conceptual framework. |
| Invited speakers | Greg Hurst (Univ. Liverpool), Jukka Jokela (Zuerich) |
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| 3: Evolution and human disease | |
| Symposium organisers: | Sean G. Byars, Copenhagen eMail-Link Jacobus J. Boomsma, Copenhagen eMail-Link |
| Symposium description | This symposium highlights the relevance of recent evolutionary research for issues of human health and disease, including evidence that our phenotypes are mismatched to our modern environment, the increasing knowledge about genetic conflicts and imprinting during pregnancy, childhood and adolescence, and the emerging data on medically significant traces of selection on reproductive life histories. |
| Invited speakers | Stephen Stearns (Yale University), David Haig (Harvard), Bernard Crespi (Simon Fraser University) |
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| 4: Cooperation and virulence | |
| Symposium organisers: | Rolf Kuemmerli, Dübendorf eMail-Link Adin Ross-Gillespie eMail-Link |
| Symposium description | In the struggle between pathogens and hosts, both sides have evolved complex cooperative behaviours. For example, microbial pathogens share virulence factors and toxins to facilitate infection, while hosts allogroom and share chemical prophylaxes to impede infection. Here, we gather researchers from opposite ends of the spectrum to share new insight on how social behaviour affects virulence. |
| Invited speakers | Sam Brown (University of Oxford), William Hughes (University of Leeds) |
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| 5: Mutualistic interactions: causes and consequences | |
| Symposium organisers: | Christian Kost, Jena eMail-Link Martin Kaltenpoth, Jena eMail-Link |
| Symposium description | In recent years, our understanding of mutualistic interactions has significantly advanced. Rigorous experimental studies have fostered new insights and enhanced mutualism theory. This symposium highlights the latest developments in the field by drawing together theoretical and empirical contributions thereby analysing the evolutionary ecology of mutualisms on all levels of biological organisation. |
| Invited speakers | Marco Archetti (Uni Basel and Harvard Uni) Ulrich Mueller (University of Texas) |
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| 6: Speciation by natural versus sexual selection | |
| Symposium organisers: | Allan Debelle, Sheffield eMail-Link Claudius Kerth, Sheffield eMail-Link |
| Symposium description | This symposium is organized on behalf of the ESF Frontiers of Speciation Research 'FroSpects' by the Marie Curie Initial Training Network 'SPECIATION'. We will examine the relative contribution of natural and sexual selection to the speciation process. We are particularly interested in addressing the question of whether the action of natural selection is pervasive in speciation involving sexual selection, or whether these two sources of selection can act independently to drive speciation. |
| Invited speakers | Andrew Hendry (McGill University), Maria Servedio (University of North Carolina), Martine Maan (University of Bern, Eawag, University of Groningen) and Erik Svensson (Lund University) |
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| 7: Fossils and Evolutionary Biology | |
| Symposium organisers: | Hervé Bocherens, Tübingen eMail-Link |
| Symposium description | Evolutionary studies that utilize extant data sources routinely make retrodictions that can only be evaluated directly using evidence from fossils. This symposium features diverse examples of the importance of fossils to evolutionary biology drawn from ongoing studies in the fields of biogeography, ecology, ontogeny, and systematics. |
| Invited speakers | Walter G. Joyce, Tübingen eMail-Link Krister T. Smith, Frankfurt eMail-Link |
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| 8: Predicting macroevolution from microevolution | |
| Symposium organisers: | Gavin Thomas, Bristol eMail-Link Rob Freckleton, Sheffield |
| Symposium description | Most current quantitative macroevolutionary models are divorced from the ecological and microevolutionary processes that underpin broad-scale evolutionary trends. This symposium will explore how theory, empirical data and methodological approaches from diverse fields including community ecology and evolutionary genetics can reveal the processes that underpin macroevolutionary patterns. |
| Invited speakers | Emma Goldberg (University of Illinois) and Oliver Pybus (Oxford University) |
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| 9: Polyploid Ecological Genomics | |
| Symposium organisers: | Christian Parisod, Neuchâtel eMail-Link Malika L. Ainouche, Rennes eMail-Link |
| Symposium description | Much progress was accomplished toward understanding the mechanisms driving evolution of polyploid genomes and the biological consequences of polyploidy in the wild. However, the genomics and ecology of polyploid lineages remain to be integrated. This symposium offers an opportunity for molecular and ecology people to explore concepts and tools that could unify research in ecological genomics. |
| Invited speakers | Brian Husband (University of Guelph), Jonathan Wendel (Iowa State University) |
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| 10: Causes of epistasis | |
| Symposium organisers: | Arjan G. M. de Visser, Wageningen eMail-Link Santiago F. Elena, València eMail-Link |
| Symposium description | Epistasis fundamentally affects all evolutionary processes, including speciation, the rate and direction of adaptation and the origin and maintenance of sex. Studies of epistasis have long had an exclusive focus on its consequences. This is changing now, since recent studies both from theoreticians and experimentalists have begun to address also the causes of epistasis. |
| Invited speakers | Roy Kishony (Harvard Medical School), Dan Weinreich (Brown University) |
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| 11: Evolutionary implications of non-genetic inheritance | |
| Symposium organisers: | Tobias Uller, Oxford eMail-Link Heikki Helanterä, Helsinki eMail-Link |
| Symposium description | There is more to transgenerational inheritance than vertical genetic transmission, including epigenetic, behavioural and cultural mechanisms. Yet, the evolutionary implications of non-genetic inheritance remain poorly understood. This symposium creates a forum for exchange of ideas and facilitates development of a conceptual framework for the evolutionary implications of extended inheritance. |
| Invited speakers | Troy Day (Queen's University, Canada) |
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| 12: Plant epigenetics | |
| Symposium organisers: | Joop Ouborg, Nijmegen eMail-Link Oliver Bossdorf, Bern eMail-Link |
| Symposium description | Epigenetic processes such as DNA methylation may play a greater role in phenotypic evolution than previously acknowledged. Particularly in plants, there is now increasing evidence of epigenetic inheritance, natural epigenetic variation, and environmentally-induced heritable epigenetic changes. This symposium will give an insight into some of the questions and novel findings in this new field. |
| Invited speakers | Vincent Colot (ENS Paris), Koen Verhoeven (Netherlands Institute of Ecology) |
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| 13: Evolution outside of the Nucleus | |
| Symposium organisers: | Maurine Neiman, Iowa eMail-Link Dan Sloan, Virginia eMail-Link Doug Taylor, Virginia eMail-Link |
| Symposium description | The primary defining feature of eukaryotes is the existence of intracellular organelles containing genomes that have very different modes of inheritance. Our goal is to use this symposium to explore what these various cytoplasmic genomes have in common, how they differ, and how the peculiarities of their biology can be used to generate fundamental insights into key questions in evolutionary biology, from the maintenance of sex and recombination to sexual conflict and speciation to the evolution of genome architecture. |
| Invited speakers | Ron Burton (Scripps Institution of Oceanography), David McCauley (Vanderbilt University) |
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| 14: Family interactions | |
| Symposium organisers: | Reinmar Hager, Manchester eMail-Link Per T. Smiseth, Edinburgh eMail-Link |
| Symposium description | Family interactions are ubiquitous in mammals, birds and other species where one or both parents provide food or other forms of care for offspring after hatching or birth. Such interactions include sibling competition over resource share, parent-offspring conflict and interactions among caring parents. The evolution of family interactions is a major area of research in behavioural ecology and quantitative genetics. |
| Invited speakers | Allen Moore (University Exeter), Mathias Kölliker (University Basel) |
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| 15: Division of labour | |
| Symposium organisers: | Claus Rueffler, Vienna eMail-Link Sergey Gavrilets, Knoxville eMail-Link |
| Symposium description | Division of labour exists between colony members as well as between iterated units of already highly integrated organisms. By bringing together researchers working on a wide variety of systems we wish to identify underlying commonalities and systems specific differences in order to understand its role in major transitions of evolution and in the evolution of organismal complexity. |
| Invited speakers | Richard Michod (University of Arizona) |
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| 16: Viviparity, placentation and conflict | |
| Symposium organisers: | Isabella Capellini, Durham eMail-Link Robert Barton, Durham eMail-Link |
| Symposium description | The placenta evolved multiple times and it exhibits striking and still unexplained morphological variation. We welcome contributions on how and why viviparity and placental diversity evolved, covering evolution in molecular, morphological and physiological traits, the role of sexual conflict and environmental pressures in driving these changes and the implications for macroevolutionary patterns. |
| Invited speakers | Derek Wildman (Wayne State Univ), David Reznick (UC Riverside) |
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| 17: Novel techniques in behavioural ecology | |
| Symposium organisers: | Amanda Bretman, Norwich eMail-Link Thomas Price, Exeter eMail-Link |
| Symposium description | Novel techniques create exciting new ways to investigate evolutionary behavioural ecology. This symposium will be dedicated to presenting novel techniques and their application. Talks will focus on the novelty and usefulness of methods used, and speakers will be encouraged to discuss the practicalities and pitfalls of the techniques, as well as the results of their experiments. |
| Invited speakers | Tracey Chapman (University of East Anglia), Michal Polak (University of Cincinnati) |
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| 18: Perceptual manipulation and mimicry | |
| Symposium organisers: | H. Martin Schaefer, Freiburg eMail-Link Florian Schiestl, Zuerich eMail-Link |
| Symposium description | In the last two decades, the exploitation of innate biases has become a core model of the evolution of communication in mate choice. Exploitation relies on receiver biases arising in the sensory or perceptual system, which are widespread in communication systems. Here, we compare exploitation to mimicry in different visual and olfactory communication systems and examine the mechanisms underlying each model of signal evolution. |
| Invited speakers | Rebecca Fuller (University of Illinois), Steve Johnson, University of KwaZulu-Natal |
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| 19: Evolution of chirality | |
| Symposium organisers: | Menno Schilthuizen, Leiden eMail-Link Barbara Gravendeel, Leiden eMail-Link |
| Symposium description | Asymmetric shapes in animals and plants can come in two mirror-image forms. However, such chiral dimorphism is found in some structures but not in others. This makes chirality one of the very few developmental traits that can be studied consistently across all multicellular organisms, offering a goldmine of research questions in evo-devo, evolutionary ecology, and macro-evolution. |
| Invited speakers | Spencer Barrett (University of Toronto), Rich Palmer (University of Alberta) |
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| 20: Chemical communication | |
| Symposium organisers: | Ally Harari, Bet Dagan eMail-Link Tamar Keasar, Haifa eMail-Link |
| Symposium description | Sex pheromones may have evolved under natural selection, as a means of species recognition, and/or by sexual selection, allowing mate choice. Natural selection is expected to be stabilizing, favoring low variation in pheromone characteristics. Sexual selection may result in variance in pheromone traits, and in costly signal production. These seemingly contrasting predictions will be discussed. |
| Invited speakers | Mark Blows (University of Queensland), Jane Hurst (University of Liverpool) |
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| 21: Evolutionary ecological genomics | |
| Symposium organisers: | Luisa Orsini, Leuven eMail-Link Christophe Eizaguirre, Kiel eMail-Link |
| Symposium description | Progress in ecological genomics is hindered by limited genome information in non-model species and the lack of an ecological context in genetic model species. This symposium will focus on integrating cutting edge molecular biology in model and non model organisms within an evolutionary context. Our aim is to understand adaptive responses in multidimensional selection regimes in the wild. |
| Invited speakers | Michael Pfrender (University of Notre Dame), Ilkka Hanski (University of Helsinki) |
| 22: Environment, G matrices and adaptation | |
| Symposium organisers: | Matthew Robinson, Sheffield eMail-Link Andrew Beckerman, Sheffield eMail-Link |
| Symposium description | The environment influences the genetic basis of phenotype, but the consequences of this for adaptation are little understood. We will bring together a broad range of evolutionary biologists, to examine the consequences of environmental influence on G matrices for evolutionary dynamics, by connecting genetic architecture and patterns of gene expression to fitness, and the processes of adaptation. |
| Invited speakers | Steve Chenoweth (University of Queensland) and Johanna Schmitt (Brown University) |
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| 23: Climate change and evolution | |
| Symposium organisers: | Klaus Fischer, Greifswald eMail-Link Stephanie S. Bauerfeind, Greifswald eMail-Link Wolf U. Blanckenhorn, Zuerich eMail-Link |
| Symposium description | Evolutionary change (rather than short-term responses as plasticity and movement) has been assumed to be too slow to keep pace with the rapidly changing environment. This symposium will bring together new insights in understanding evolutionary responses to global environmental changes, and outline chances for as well as limits to such evolutionary change and the implied system-wide consequences. |
| Invited speakers | Juha Merilä (University of Helsinki), Ary Hoffmann (Melbourne University) |
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| 24: Adaptation in large populations | |
| Symposium organisers: | Nicolas Bierne, Sete eMail-Link Denis Roze, Roscoff eMail-Link |
| Symposium description | The dynamics of adaptation in large populations has been the subject of substantial recent interest. In large populations mutation is not a limiting factor to adaptation, and many beneficial alleles can segregate simultaneously and interact. Standard results of the neutral theory are invalid under these conditions. This symposium welcomes both theoretical and empirical contributions to this issue. |
| Invited speakers | Nick Barton (IST Austria), Joachim Hermisson (Uni Vienna) |
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| 25: Evolutionary systems biology | |
| Symposium organisers: | Laurence Loewe, Wisconsin-Madison eMail-Link Orkun Soyer, Exeter eMail-Link |
| Symposium description | An aim of evolutionary systems biology is to extend molecular systems biology models to predict fitness correlates. These can enable new insights into the adaptive landscape and genotype-phenotype maps and may thus be used to address problems in population genetics. Such work can inspire mechanistic simulations of evolution, testing increasingly detailed evolutionary hypotheses. |
| Invited speakers | Jennifer Reed (University of Wisconsin), Andreas Wagner (University of Zürich) |
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| 26: Parallel Evolution | |
| Symposium organisers: | Walter Salzburger, Basel eMail-Link Moritz Muschick, Basel eMail-Link |
| Symposium description | Parallel evolution is the emergence of the similar phenotypes in independent lineages. The evolution of parallel (or convergent) morphologies can be a response to similar selection pressures. Alternatively, developmental or genetic constraints could lead to convergence. This symposium focuses on the genetic and developmental basis as well as on the ecological circumstances of parallel evolution. |
| Invited speakers | Hopi E. Hoekstra (Harvard University), Louis Bernatchez (Laval University) |
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| 27: Selective sweeps | |
| Symposium organisers: | Kristan Schneider, Vienna eMail-Link Yuseob Kim, Ewha Womans University, Korea |
| Symposium description | This symposium aims to present recent empirical and theoretical advancements in detecting selective sweeps in complex biological settings and furthermore inferring parameters of biological contexts under which directional selection occurs. Possible topics include geographic structure of populations, epidemiological processes, epistasis and other non-standard assumptions of directional selection. |
| Invited speakers | Luis-Miguel Chevin (Imperial College), Wolfgang Stephan (LMU Munich) |
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| 28: Functional Population Genomics | |
| Symposium organisers: | Jay F. Storz, Lincoln NE eMail-Link Jeffrey M. Good, Missoula MT eMail-Link |
| Symposium description | This symposium showcases research in ‘functional population genomics’, an emerging subdiscipline of evolutionary systems biology. The symposium emphasizes integrative studies of pathway function that investigate the fitness consequences of transcriptomic and proteomic variation. A chief goal is to relate changes in pathway or network function to evolutionary changes in whole-organism phenotypes. |
| Invited speakers | Axel Meyer (University of Konstanz), Chris Jiggins (Cambridge University) |
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| 29: Can drift facilitate adaptive evolution? | |
| Symposium organisers: | Bas Zwaan, Wageningen eMail-Link Arjan de Visser, Wageningen eMail-Link |
| Symposium description | How predictable is the outcome of selection depending on the effective population size and the target trait? Can low effective population size facilitate adaptive evolution via accumulation of near-neutral mutations? How does the nature of genetic variation influence the outcome of natural selection? These questions will be addressed to highlight the interplay between all four forces of evolution. |
| Invited speakers | Joanna Masel, Merijn Salverda |
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| 30: Other (General sessions) | |
| Symposium organisers: | Local scientific committee |
| Symposium description | The general sessions address all topics relevant to Evolutionary Biology that are not sufficiently covered by the contributed symposia 1 to 29. |
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| 31: Outreach Symposium – funded by VolkswagenFoundation | |
| Symposium organisers: | Thomas D‘Souza, Tuebingen eMail-Link |
| Symposium description | The outreach symposium “Evolution – more than biology” addresses applications of evolutionary approaches in disciplines that, at first sight, have little in common with evolutionary biology. The four invited speakers of the symposium will cover society-relevant topics such as evolution of religion and religiousness, evolutionary medicine, evolutionary economics and evolutionary literary study. |
| Invited speakers | Joseph Carroll (University of Missouri, St. Louis), Esben Andersen (Aalborg University), Michael Blume (University of Jena), Frank Ryan (University of Sheffield) |
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