REGISTRATION REQUEST and ABSTRACT SUBMISSION DEADLINE: MARCH 31, 2022
To attend the conferences Jacques Monod, an abstract submission is mandatory,
Registrations request without abstract submission will not be processed, except in specific
cases (i. g. for Publishers : please contact chairperson).
Chairperson: Evelyn HOULISTON
Sorbonne University / CNRS, UMR 7009, Laboratoire de Biologie du Développement de Villefranche-sur-Mer, 06230 Villefranche-sur-Mer, France
Phone: +33 (0)4 93 76 39 83
Email: houliston@imev-mer.fr
Vice-chairperson: Arnau SEBÉ-PEDRÓS
Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) -PRBB building, Dr. Aiguader 88, 08003 Barcelona, Spain
Phone: +34 93 316 01 46
Email: arnau.sebe@crg.eu
All living animals, the metazoans, are derived from a single ancestral multicellular assemblage that formed in the earth’s oceans hundreds of millions of years ago. The origin and the early evolution of this unique metazoan ancestor remain among the most fascinating questions in biology. A highly interdisciplinary emerging international community has started to build a new framework for understanding the origin of metazoans and will be brought together at this meeting.
The core issue of reconstructing the history of animal evolution will be illuminated by experts in both paleontology and molecular phylogeny. One crucial issue addressed at the meeting will be the topology of the metazoan tree at its base using data from outside the major clade Bilateria: the sponges, the ctenophores, the cnidarians and the placozoans. Also making important contributions to understanding of the transition to multicellularity are cell biologists, notably through analysis and comparison of individual cellular features such as cell polarity, cell-cell junctions and cellular symbioses. The cellular perspective is also coming to the fore via rapid developments in single cell transcriptome sequencing, allowing us to address how progressive specialization of individual cell types underpins animal evolution.
Finally, an important source of insights into animal evolution are studies using experimental “model” species drawn from the non-bilaterian animal groups, as well as from outside the metazoans. Metazoan models covered at the meeting include the cnidarians Hydra, Hydractinia and Nematostella, the ctenophore Mnemiopsis, and several sponge species, as well as the enigmatic placozoan Trichoplax. Also considered will be the parallel evolutionary adventures in multicellularity of other eukaryotes including plants, fungi and brown algae.
Topics covered by the conference will thus be
- Lessons from non-metazoan eukaryotes: the protistan relatives of animals and other multicellular transitions.
- Animal phylogenetic relationships
- Lessons from the fossil record
- Evolution of cellular features and cell types
- Lessons from non-bilaterian models: ctenophores, sponges, placozoans and cnidarians
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