Conference: The Global Genome Question: Microbes as the Key to Understanding Evolution and Ecology; October 11-13, 2002, Longboatkey, Florida

戴维·雷尔曼博士(斯坦福大学)和赞助组织美国微生物学会(华盛顿特区)已获得一笔赠款，用于2002年10月11日至13日在佛罗里达州朗博特基举行的题为“全球基因组问题：微生物是理解进化和生态学的关键”的研讨会。一个由30-40名受邀科学家组成的小组将参加；花费2天的时间进行审议，以产生一份分析性和综合性报告的智力材料。主要目标是制定一种新的研究范式，从对栽培微生物基因组的分析出发，走向理解基因组与群落进化和动态之间的关系和相互作用。微生物携带着巨大的遗传财富和生物能力。人类已经在医学、农业、生态学和进化论研究中利用了这些微小生物的生化能力和多功能性。但是，当研究人员挖掘储存在微生物基因组中的巨大资源时，更多的问题--以及一些问题--已经变得明显。其中许多困难是任何快速增长的企业的典型；还有一些困难是这个新的科学领域所特有的。基因组科学无与伦比的好处使得重要的问题得到协调的关注和问题的解决变得至关重要。在实验室对单个基因组测序的开创性工作的基础上，科学家们知道，从一种新的研究方法中可以学到更多东西，这种方法侧重于(1)在进化和生态背景下理解基因组，(2)使用基因组学使能的方法和分析解决进化和生态问题。种群动态、重组和横向基因转移似乎是基因组和生态系统进化的驱动力。如果是这样的话，基因组进化和生态系统动力学是同一过程的一部分--这个过程可以通过研究环境中的微生物群落来理解，而不是通过研究实验室中的单个菌株或孤立的系统来理解。

A grant has been awarded to Dr. David Relman (Stanford University) and sponsoring organization the American Academy of Microbiology (Washington, DC) for a colloquium entitled "The Global Genome Question: Microbes as the Key to Understanding Evolution and Ecology," October 11-13, 2002, in Longboatkey, FL. A group of 30-40 invited scientists will participate; spending 2 days in deliberations designed to produce the intellectual material for an analytical and comprehensive report. The primary objective is to map out a new research paradigm that departs from analysis of the genomes of cultivated microbes and moves toward understanding the relationship and interplay among the genome and community evolution and dynamics.Microbes carry enormous genetic wealth and biological aptitude. Humans have already exploited the biochemical competence and versatility of these tiny creatures in medicine, agriculture, ecology, and studies of evolution. But while investigators tap into the tremendous resources stored in microbial genomes, more questions--and some problems--have become apparent. Many of these difficulties are typical of any rapidly growing enterprise; still others are specific to this new scientific arena. The unparalleled benefits of genome science make it critical that important questions receive coordinated attention and that issues are resolved. Building on the groundbreaking work of sequencing individual genomes in the laboratory, scientists know that much more can be learned from a new research approach that focuses on (1) understanding genomes in an evolutionary and ecological context and (2) addressing evolutionary and ecological questions using genomics-enabled methods and analyses. Population dynamics, recombination, and lateral gene transfer look to be driving forces of genomic and ecosystem evolution. If so, genome evolution and ecosystem dynamics are part of the same process--a process that can be understood through the study of communities of microorganisms in environments, rather than individual strains or isolated systems in the lab.