Symposium: Insights of Early Chordate Genomics: January 3-7, 2010; Seattle, WA

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In the animal kingdom, there is a phylum called Chordata that includes three groups: amphioxus or lancelets, Tunicates, and Vertebrates (animals with backbones). The sequencing of key genomes from members of these groups opens up many avenues for comparative investigations on the evolution of these animals in comparison to all other living organisms - avenues that were not available in the 20th century.Because of these very recent advances in genomics and mapping of key animal genomes, the principal investigators will host a symposium at the Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB) meeting in Seattle (January, 2010) that will bring together the latest findings from chordate genomes with respect to the evolution of developmental mechanisms and neuroendocrine systems. These findings are already challenging several current hypotheses and providing directions for new comparative studies. As studies progress on the genomes from these basal chordates, many more past hypotheses and findings will be challenged. This symposium therefore offers an opportunity to expand our understanding of fundamental features of ancestral developmental mechanisms and neuroendocrine systems and will be the first to examine these features synthetically in one meeting.Eleven national and international speakers will participate and present in the symposium. In addition, there will be two contributing sessions where speakers are encouraged to have at least one graduate student or postdoctoral research associate from their laboratory present an oral presentation or poster. There will also be an opportunity for other participants attending the meeting to present at one of these contributing sessions. Proceedings of the symposium will be widely disseminated to the scientific community and beyond through papers published in the SICB journal, Integrative and Comparative Biology.