SENCKENBERG
world of biodiversity

GENOMIC BASIS OF CLIMATE ADAPTATION

A symposium hosted by Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre, Frankfurt, Germany

January 17^th to 18^th 2018

Global warming and changing climatic conditions will require organisms to either track their climatic niche or rapidly adapt to new conditions.  Our understanding of the genomic basis underlying climate adaptation across various taxa is currently growing fast. We have so far learned about adaptive inversion clines, polygenic traits, the interplay of standing genetic variation and newly arising mutations, adaptation in symbiotic systems, and the role of adaptive introgression between species. These species-specific responses now raise more general scientific questions:

I) Which processes and genomic features further or hinder adaptation?
II) Are common patterns arising in terms of genes or pathways responding to climate stress selection? What are the relative roles of transcription changes versus structural changes?
III) Which directions of research are promising for the future?
IV) Which next generation sequencing techniques, and other methods, are most appropriate in the near future?

This symposium aims at bringing together leading scientists in the field to discuss recent results in genomic climate adaptation. Particularly, we want to integrate knowledge across disciplines (e.g. population genetics, molecular ecology/evolution, bioinformatics), and across taxa (e.g. plants, animals, fungi). Together, we want to identify open questions and promising methodology, and conceptually advance this scientifically and societally important field.

Confirmed keynote lecturers
Outi Savolainen (University of Oulu, Finland)
Alan O. Bergland (University of Virginia, USA)

Confirmed speakers
Thomas Bataillon (Aarhus University, Denmark)
Thomas Flatt (University Lausanne, Switzerland)
Robert Kofler (VetMedUni, Vienna, Austria)
Thomas Mock (University of East Anglia, UK)
Christian Rellstab (WSL, Zürich, Switzerland)
Karl Schmid (University of Hohenheim, Germany)

The organizers and scientific committee cordially invite you!

Markus Pfenninger (markus.pfenninger(q)senckenberg.de)
Imke Schmitt (imke.schmitt(q)senckenberg.de)
Barbara Feldmeyer (Barbara.Feldmeyer(q)senckenberg.de)
Ann-Marie Waldvogel (Ann-Marie.Waldvogel(q)senckenberg.de)

Venue: Senckenberg Museum of Natural History in Frankfurt am Main
Senckenberganlage 25
60325 Frankfurt am Main
Germany