The British Council in Spain in collaboration with the Spanish Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) is organising a series of scientific workshops to provide opportunities for researchers from the UK and Spain to meet face-to-face for the exchange of ideas, knowledge and information on priority topics and to explore future areas of research and collaboration. The next workshop in this series, entitled Evolution 150, will cover the broad field of evolutionary biology and marks the 150th anniversary of the publication of "The Origin of Species".
For further details and an application form contact Rafael Zardoya rafaz@mncn.csic.es or Peter Holland peter.holland@zoo.ox.ac.uk
Early to mid career researchers wishing to participate should send a completed application form and CV to belen.fortea@britishcouncil.es before December 15, 2008.
Os principais objetivos do curso são: familiarização com a terminologia morfológica específica; uso de chaves taxonômicas para identificação dos principais gêneros; exposição de aspectos da sistemática, biogeografia, biologia, e ecologia; discussão de aspectos metodológicos para amostragem, coleta e preparação dos diferentes grupos de abelhas.
O curso terá lugar no Departamento de Zoologia da Universidade Federal do Paraná, localizado no Centro Politécnico, Jardim das Américas, em Curitiba. O período será de 9 a 14 de fevereiro de 2009.
Circulares Informativas / Convocatorias
1º Convocatoria Octubre 2008
Similar to that for other invertebrates, the species description for this minute (0.4 mm) crustacean Leberis chihuahuensis comprises about 4 pages of mysterious text and 2 pages of equally enigmatic illustrations. In addition, the DNA barcode of the type specimen is provided, as well as the more usual NJ tree, in this case showing 14% sequence divergence from its sister species L. davidi.
By including both kinds of characters, ie DNA barcode and morphology, Elias-Gutierrez and Valdez-Moreno provide what seems to me a model for any new species description, one that will enable specialists and non-specialists alike to make the most use of their findings.
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Debate has long simmered over whether data on the order of appearance of taxa in the stratigraphic record should play any role in analyses of phylogenetic relationships among those taxa. Critics argue that temporal data are in principle inapplicable to questions of cladistic relationship, but specific versions of this claim all seem flawed. Stratocladistics offers a methodological context (patterned after that of cladistics itself) within which temporal data participate along with conventional character data in selecting most-parsimonious hypotheses. Stratocladistics outperforms cladistics in tests based on simulated histories, and additional testing will be facilitated by new software automating stratocladistic searches. As with any body of data, we may decide to include or exclude temporal data for specific reasons, but the explanatory power of hypotheses that use both temporal and conventional character data exceeds that of hypotheses based on character data alone.
Biological systems, from molecular complexes to whole organisms and ecological interactions, tend to have a modular organization. Modules are sets of traits that are internally integrated by interactions among traits, but are relatively independent from other modules. The interactions within modules rely on different mechanisms, depending on the context of a study. For morphological traits, modularity occurs in developmental, genetic, functional, and evolutionary contexts. A range of methods for quantifying integration and modularity in morphological data is available, and a number of comparative and experimental designs can be used to compare the different contexts. How development produces covariation between traits can have substantial implications for understanding genetic variation and the potential for evolutionary change, but research in this area has only begun and many questions remain unanswered.
Researchers have revealed the complete mitochondrial genome of one of the world's most celebrated mummies, known as the Tyrolean Iceman or Ötzi. The sequence represents the oldest complete DNA sequence of modern humans' mitochondria, according to the report published online on October 30th in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication.
Mitochondria are subcellular organelles that generate all of the body's energy and house their own DNA, which is passed down from mother to child each generation. Mitochondrial DNA thus offers a window into our evolutionary past.
"Through the analysis of a complete mitochondrial genome in a particularly well-preserved human, we have obtained evidence of a significant genetic difference between present-day Europeans and a representative prehistoric human—despite the fact that the Iceman is not so old—just about 5,000 years," said Franco Rollo of the University of Camerino in Italy.
The Tyrolean Iceman witnessed the Neolithic-Copper Age transition in Central Europe more than 5,000 years ago. His mummified corpse was recovered from an Alpine glacier on the Austro-Italian border in 1991. In 2000, scientists defrosted the Iceman's body for the first time and sampled DNA from his intestines.
Earlier study of the DNA showed that he belonged to the lineage, or "subhaplogroup," known as K1. About 8% of modern Europeans belong to the K haplogroup, meaning that they share a common ancestor, and that group is divided into two "subhaplogroups," K1 and K2. The K1 haplogroup, in turn, can be divided into three clusters.
In the new study, the researchers took advantage of advanced genome-sequencing technologies to shed more light on the Iceman's genetics. They sequenced his entire mitochondrial genome and compared that sequence to other published human mitochondrial DNA sequences to construct his evolutionary (or phylogenetic) family tree.
"The surprise came when we found that the lineage of the Iceman did not fit any of the three known K1 clusters," Rollo said. His team has informally named the newly discovered branch on the human family tree "Ötzi's branch."
"This doesn't simply mean that Ötzi had some 'personal' mutations making him different from the others but that, in the past, there was a group—a branch of the phylogenetic tree—of men and women sharing the same mitochondrial DNA," Rollo said. "Apparently, this genetic group is no longer present. We don't know whether it is extinct or it has become extremely rare."
At least for the moment, he said, that means no one can claim to be "the issue of Ötzi."
Source : Cell Press
Workshop at the University of Michigan, Jan 10-11, 2009
Estimating Species Trees: a Phylogenetic Paradigm for the 21st Century
Recent computational and modeling advances have produced methods for estimating species trees directly. Accurate estimates of phylogenetic relationships can be extracted from genetic data with these new approaches, sometimes with less data, by directly modeling the causes of discordance in topology and branch lengths among gene trees. Such inferences are commonly impossible under the traditional phylogenetic paradigm because of the potential for the idiosyncrasies of gene trees to obscure the actual history of species divergence.
We are offering this workshop to not only increase the visibility and use of these methods, but also address a number of significant challenges to estimating species trees, to assure that the advantages these methods offer reach a broad community of users. The goals of the workshop are to: (i) provide an understanding of the theoretical underpinnings of current methodology, (ii) present empirical examples demonstrating the utility of current methodology as well as its limitations, and (iii) offer instruction on the technical aspects involved in using current software. This will be accomplished through the combination of a series of lectures (day one) and hands-on computer training (day two).
For more information, click the "read more" link below, and see the flyer Estimating_Species_Trees.pdf.
Participation in the workshop requires registration (go to http://www.ummz.lsa.umich.edu/sptree.html) and is free for those attending the lectures (on Jan 10) and is $25 for those attending the computer training (on Jan 11; see website for programs that will be covered). To facilitate broad and diverse participation in this important workshop, funding is available to offset transportation and lodging costs (i.e., $500 for those from the US and $1000 for international participants – see website for details on how to apply).
Co-organizers: L. Lacey Knowles, University of Michigan, and Laura S. Kubatko, Ohio State University
Location of the workshop: University of Michigan, January 10-11, 2009.
Invited speakers for workshop:
Liang Liu, Harvard University
Laura Kubatko, Ohio State University
Dennis Pearl, Ohio State University
Célcile Ané, University of Wisconsin
James Degnan, University of Canterbury
L. Lacey Knowles, University of Michigan
Luay Nakhleh, Rice University
Karen Cranston, University of Arizona
Bret Larget, University of Wisconsin
Robb Brumsfield, Louisiana State Univ.
Lisle Gibbs, Ohio State University
Scott Edwards, Harvard University
Catherine Linnen, Harvard University
Natalia Belfiore, University of California, Berkeley
For more information please contact: Dr. L. Lacey Knowles, knowlesl@umich.edu
This workshop has been made possible by funds generously provided by the Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan.
