CONFERENCE- CONSEQUENCES OF MATERNALLY DERIVED YOLK HORMONES FOR OFFSPRING PHENOTYPE: CURRENT STATUS, CHALLENGES, AND OPPORTUNITIES, TO BE HELD JANUARY 2-6,2008 IN SAN ANTONIO, TX.

母亲可以通过转移的基因以外的方式影响后代的表型。这种母性影响是普遍存在的，持续的研究表明，它们可以是多么微妙和深远。由于母体效应的进化意义，人们对母体效应产生了巨大的跨学科兴趣，但几个关键的、相互关联的问题仍然没有得到回答。自从令人兴奋的发现蛋黄含有母体衍生的类固醇激素以来，研究人员一直在研究卵黄类固醇可以通过多种方式提供母体影响后代表型的机制。在这个阶段，蛋黄类固醇对后代的影响似乎是复杂的，可能是积极的，也可能是消极的，这取决于所检查的特征，而且它们在分类群内和分类群之间都不同。然而，到目前为止，研究人员在不同类群中研究这一现象的互动有限，目前还不清楚是否存在关于蛋黄类固醇在后代发育中的作用的大规模模式。作为此次研讨会更广泛影响的一部分，来自职业生涯各个阶段的演讲者(从博士生到全职教授)将被聚集在一起，以鼓励对保持学科活力至关重要的合作机会。这种相互作用将通过首次将研究鸟类、爬行动物、鱼类和两栖动物相关问题的研究人员聚集在一起，鼓励采用更综合的方法来研究蛋黄类固醇。

Mothers can influence the phenotype of their offspring in ways beyond the genes that are transferred. Such maternal effects are widespread, and continuing research demonstrates just how subtle and profound they can be. There is tremendous interdisciplinary interest in maternal effects because of their evolutionary implications, but several key, inter-related questions remain unanswered. Since the exciting discovery that egg yolks contain maternally derived steroid hormones researchers have been investigating the many ways by which yolk steroids can provide a mechanism for maternal effects on offspring phenotype. At this stage it seems likely that the consequences of yolk steroids for offspring are complex, may be positive or negative depending on the traits examined, and that they differ both within and among taxa. To date, however, there have been limited interactions between researchers studying this phenomenon in different taxa and it is not yet clear if large-scale patterns regarding the function of yolk steroids in offspring development occur. As part of the broader impacts of this symposium, speakers from the full spectrum of career stages (doctoral student to full professor) will be brought together to encourage collaborative opportunities that are essential to maintaining a vigorous discipline. Such interactions will encourage a more synthetic approach to the study of yolk steroids by bringing together, for the first time, researchers working on related questions in birds, reptiles, fishes, and amphibians.