Zebrafish in Comparative Context: A Symposium

描述(申请人提供)：致力于斑马鱼的发育和遗传学的科学家，作为一个模型系统，与更大的比较生物学家和鱼类学家社区的互动很少。拟议会议的主要目标是将这些小组聚集在一起，促进互动和交流，从而开辟跨学科研究的新途径。研讨会和相关活动(投稿论文和海报会议)将于2006年1月在佛罗里达州奥兰多举行的综合与比较生物学学会(SICB)年会上举行，为期两天。研讨会涵盖了鱼类生物学的广泛主题，包括系统学、基因组学、发育遗传学、神经生物学和行为学。14位受邀的演讲者包括研究人员，他们使用斑马鱼和其他硬骨鱼的新获得的基因组序列来了解鱼类和基因组进化的基本方面。其他人则专注于鱼类的比较研究，或者是更传统的斑马鱼发育生物学家，试图了解骨骼和神经系统是如何形成的。所有这些都是因为他们对比较生物学的兴趣而被选中的。演讲者的选择包括许多初级调查人员，研究生和博士后研究员都将被鼓励参加并展示海报。研讨会论文将作为特刊发表在《实验动物学--分子和发育进化》杂志上。这将是使比较生物学界更容易获得关于斑马鱼的大量发育和遗传信息的重要第一步，并将教育斑马鱼研究人员了解其有机体与其他动物的关系。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Scientists working on the development and genetics of zebrafish, as a model system, have very few interactions with the greater communities of comparative biologists and ichthyologists. The major goal of the proposed meeting is to bring these groups together and to foster interactions and exchanges that may open up new avenues of interdisciplinary research. The symposium and associated activities (contributed paper and poster sessions) will take place over two days at the annual meeting of the Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB) in January 2006 in Orlando, Florida. The symposium covers a broad range of topics in fish biology, including systematics, genomics, developmental genetics, neurobiology, and behavior. The fourteen invited speakers include researchers, using newly available genome sequences for zebrafish and other teleosts to understand fundamental aspects offish and genome evolution. Others focus on comparative studies in fish or are more traditional zebrafish developmental biologists trying to understand how the skeleton and nervous system form. All of these have been chosen for their interest in comparative biology. The selection of speakers includes many junior investigators, and both graduate students and postdoctoral fellows will be encouraged to attend and present posters. Symposium papers will be published as a special issue of the Journal of Experimental Zoology - Molecular and Developmental Evolution. This will be an important first step in making the vast amount of developmental and genetic information about zebrafish more accessible to the comparative biology community, as well as educating zebrafish researchers as to the relationship of their organism to other animals.