Genetics of Adaptation

GENETICS OF ADAPTATION

An international symposium at the National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bangalore

Dates: 28 November to 2 December 2016

Venue: Dasheri, NCBS

Funded by: External funding is being sought. Contact us for more information.

Organizers: Dr. Deepa Agashe, Prof. Gaiti Hasan, and Dr. Krushnamegh Kunte

In 2016, the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS, Bangalore) is celebrating 25 years of cutting-edge research in biological sciences, and is organizing a string of international academic meetings in 2016. The evolutionary biology and genetics groups at NCBS are organizing an international symposium on the Genetics of Adaptation for four days.

Our goal is to bring together a broad representation of evolutionary biologists, geneticists and developmental biologists who study the evolutionary drivers and genetic and developmental mechanisms of key adaptations in nature. Ideally, participants will either be evolutionary biologists with notable accomplishments in genetics and developmental biology of adaptations, or geneticists and developmental biologists whose work informs ideas in population genetics and evolutionary theory/genomics. Together, we will aim to synthesize recent developments in evolutionary biology, population genetics theory, developmental tools and genomics technologies, which have fueled explosive growth in understanding molecular genetic and developmental bases of adaptations even in non-model organisms. The case studies (and speakers) are being carefully chosen to include adaptations for which both the evolutionary/ecological significance and molecular genetic/developmental bases have been studied well in the past few years. We are aiming to bring together people who work on various organisms, from bacteria to plants and animals, and in areas from basic (e.g., population genetics and evolutionary biology) to applied sciences (e.g., agricultural genetics). The total number of participating PIs is expected to be 15-20, plus a selection of advanced PhD students and post-docs. We will have plenty of time for both formal and informal discussions and interactions.

Tentative daily schedule:

9.30-11 am: Talks
11-11.30 am: Coffee break
11.30-1 pm: Talks
1-2 pm: Lunch
2-4 pm: Posters
4-4.30 pm: Coffee break
4.30-6 pm: Talks
6-7 pm: Group discussions
7 pm onward: Dinner

Most talks will be 20-25 mins + 5-10 minutes for discussion.

There will be a series of workshops on 28 December for student participants.

Tentative themed sessions:

1. Theory and modern methods
2. Social interactions
3. Interspecific interactions
4. Interactions with the environment
5. Genetic architecture of adaptations
6. Timescales of adaptations

Invited speakers (**confirmed, *confirmed in principle):

Dr. Arkhat Abzhanov (Imperial College London, UK)**
Prof. Jonathan Flint (Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, UK)**
Prof. Nicolas Gompel (Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany)**
Prof. Stephen Goodwin (University of Oxford, UK)**
Prof. Ralph Greenspan (Kavli Institute for Mind and Brain, USA)*
Prof. Mark Kirkpatrick (University of Texas at Austin, USA)*
Prof. Antónia Monteiro (Yale-NUS College, National University of Singapore, Singapore)**
Prof. Richard F. Mott (Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, UK)*
Prof. Leonie Moyle (Indiana University, Bloomington, USA)*
Prof. Nipam Patel (University of California, Berkeley, USA)**
Prof. Dmitri Petrov (Stanford University, California, USA)*
Dr. G. H. Perry (Pennsylvania State University, USA)**
Prof. Benjamin Prud’homme (Institut de Biologie du Développement de Marseille-Luminy (IBDML), France)**
Prof. Dolph Schluter (University of British Columbia, Canada)*
Prof. Vijay Sharma (Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR Bangalore), India)**
Prof. L. S. Shashidhara (Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune, India)**

Check back for further details soon.