Developmental and Evolutionary Regulation of Fish Body Shape, Conference Grant- the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology annual meeting in Seattle WA, Jan. 4-7 2010

PI：Jeffrey A.WalkerProposal Number：0949102 Proposal标题：鱼类身体形状的发育和进化调节当前和未来生物学研究的一个主要方向是了解多个相互作用的功能系统如何协调以产生一个工作的身体。生物体需要在多种环境中很好地工作，既有可预测的环境扰动，也有不可预测的环境扰动，这一事实使这种理解复杂化。此外，有机设计反映了过去环境的历史，而不是对未来环境的计划。因此，复杂的、相互作用的功能系统如何演变是一个真正的重大挑战。这次研讨会将召集从遗传学家、生理学家、生态学家到工程师的科学家，以促进鱼类体型作为模型系统的出现，以了解复杂的、相互作用的功能系统是如何发展和进化的。鱼的身体形状是一种复杂的形态，1)由许多许多发育途径和2)许多不同行为的功能决定的。现在，由于从遗传学到工程学的新技术和整合不同生物组织水平(从基因到生态)的新理论模型，理解动态环境中从基因到身体形状、身体形状到功能和工作鱼体的许多路径的调节和协调是可能的。通过召集不同的研究人员，并鼓励与会者思考这些领域是如何重叠和相互作用的，这次研讨会将促进一种整体或系统的方法来理解复杂的功能系统。

PI: Jeffrey A. WalkerProposal Number: 0949102Proposal Title: Developmental and Evolutionary Regulation of Fish Body ShapeA major direction of current and future biological research is to understand how multiple, interacting functional systems coordinate to produce a body that works. This understanding is complicated by the fact that organisms need to work well in multiple environments, with both predictable and unpredictable environmental perturbations. Furthermore, organismal design reflects a history of past environments and not a plan for future environments. How complex, interacting functional systems evolve, then, is a truly grand challenge. This symposium will be held to convene scientists ranging from geneticists, to physiologists, to ecologists, to engineers to facilitate the emergence of fish body shape as a model system for understanding how complex, interacting functional systems develop and evolve. Fish body shape is a complex morphology that 1) results from many, many developmental paths and 2) functions in many, many different behaviors. Understanding the regulation and coordination of the many paths from genes to body shape, body shape to function, and function to a working fish body in a dynamic environment is now possible given new technologies from genetics to engineering and new theoretical models that integrate the different levels of biological organization (from genes to ecology). By convening a diverse array of researchers and encouraging participants to think about how these fields overlap and interact, this symposium will facilitate a holistic, or systems, approach to understanding complex functional systems.