Background | Programme Sessions | Programme Schedule ** DOWNLOAD FINAL PROGRAMME: Final Programme (pdf) The sustainable development and the preservation of global biodiversity are interlocking policy challenges facing the world’s nations. The scientific basis for preserving biodiversity has been built by ecosystem scientists, ecologists, taxonomists and economists. Population biologists and geneticists are becoming more and more involved particularly in the studies on the molecular aspects. The workshop will explore “Molecular Biodiversity” and the contributions that molecular biologists can give to this issue. The workshop’s major aim will be to focus attention on some specific topics, particularly those connected with applications and methodologies. In this context DNA Barcoding is a central component of the workshop. DNA Barcoding seeks to sequence a very short but standardized genomic region from all organisms, in order to provide a unique diagnostic identifier for different living species. This new approach has the potential to radically advance biologists’ efforts to catalogue life on earth, making it possible to identify any organism from a tiny piece of tissue. In contrast to “vertical genomics” which establishes the full gene sequence of a few model organisms (e.g., the Human Genome Project), barcoding is a kind of “horizontal genomics”. Like many new techniques, DNA barcoding is not without challenges. For example, ideal barcode regions for animals, plants and other organisms have yet to be identified. This is a challenge, as DNA barcodes have to be different enough between species so as to allow discrimination while still showing sufficient similarity within members of the same species. The DNA Barcode Initiative is generating enormous volumes of data on different taxonomic groups. Assembling the Tree of Life (AToL), Molecular and Microbial Ecology and Ecological Genomics are other initiatives that are gathering selected sequence data from different taxonomic groups, with the goal of reconstructing major evolutionary relationships. They have the potential to lead to a deeper understanding of the basis of earth’s biodiversity, the nature and origins of species barrier, and/or of metagenome at a molecular level. This workshop will enable partnerships between molecular biologists working in fields like Molecular Taxonomy, Molecular Ecology, Phylogenomics, Ecological Genomic and several initiatives such as the DNA Barcode Initiative, and the Tree of Life project. Bringing these communities together will produce a variety of mutual benefits. The communities share an interest in the development of new technologies for gene sequencing and sequence data analysis. The vast volumes of data produced will be useful for studies of molecular evolution and dynamics as well as for applied problems such as agricultural pests, food quality, and species preservation. In this way, molecular biodiversity study will determine an increasing interest on the scientific community and will also generate benefits for health, prosperity and human welfare. The workshop will be the first to bring together experts from the fields mentioned above, especially those in European institutions. A particular emphasis in the Workshop will be devoted to the technological innovations associated with these studies such as: new methods of rapid, miniaturized (nanotechnology) and inexpensive sequencing, and new and specific bioinformatic approaches needed for the flood of data being generated in the near future.
The workshop will be divided into 5 sessions: 1. Molecular Biodiversity and Evolutionary Genomics This introductory session will cover the most important issues connected with the study and exploitation of Molecular Biodiversity. It will include Phylogenetics, Taxonomy, Population Genetics and related topics.
2. DNA Barcode This session will cover the rather recent initiative of DNA Barcode considered as an important instrument for the practical purposes of Biodiversity application, but also for better understanding of the molecular basis of Biodiversity. It will include the definition of DNA Barcode and its aims, problems and challenges.
3. Molecular Biodiversity in different lineages This session will describe the state-of-the-art of the most relevant problems in the field of Biodiversity focusing on some specific examples, such as Molecular Biodiversity in Fungi, Plants, Metazoa and in Metagenomic data for environmental mapping.
4. Methodology and Computational Biology The study of Molecular Biodiversity and particularly the DNA Barcode requires the contribution of converging disciplines and methodologies for data production, storage and analysis. This session will consider the critical factors for a faster and cheaper data production, the bioinformatic tools for data analysis and the mathematical models as well as the statistical approaches for Biodiversity studies.
5. Applications This session will deal with some important modern applications of Biodiversity and the involvement of industries. There will be 180-200 participants, including about 30 speakers.
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