2. Behavioral Biology TALKS - Deutsche Zoologische Gesellschaft

1. Key Note and Special Guest Talks
Friday, September 21, 2012
Welcome address: A 600 / 18:30
Uli Burchardt (major of Konstanz), Ulrich Rüdiger (principal University of Konstanz),
Hermann Wagner (chairman DZG)
Key Note: Chair - Axel Meyer A 600 / 19:00
Scott Edwards (Harvard University)
Molecular Ecology in the 21 st Century: Genomic Foundations of an Integrative
Science
Author: Scott Edwards 1
Affiliation: 1 Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, USA
Molecular ecology in the 21 st century is gradually transforming from a neutral-marker
science, in which genetic markers were used to track lineages through time and
space, into a functional marker science, in which the functions and expression of
gene variants are studied in the context of ecology, behavior and field biology.
Ironically, the vision of molecular ecology of linking variation in gene function to
variation in phenotype and fitness is moving ever closer to goals long held by
molecular biology, albeit with an emphasis on non-traditional model species in
diverse natural and behavioral settings. As whole genomes, transcriptomes, other
‘omes’ and the computational tools to mine them are accumulated for diverse
species, well-curated specimens and genome resources from diverse temporal,
geographic, experimental and behavioral states will be key for continued progress.
These transformations will be illustrated through recent research showing first how
genes are used to track the evolution and spread of a bacterial pathogen,
Mycoplasma gallisepticum, infecting songbirds in the US, and then how genomics is
detailing the birds’ rapidly evolving resistance to this pathogen.
1