Symposium: Insects as Models for Integrating Development with Evolution

University Of Montana, Missoula MT

Investigators

Abstract

0078320 Emlen Funds from this proposal make possible a symposium on the evolution of developmental mechanisms in insects, to be held at the XXI International Congress of Entomology in Iguasu Falls, Brazil (20-26 August, 2000). Insect research has contributed enormously to our current understanding of both developmental and evolutionary biology. Recently, much of the ground-breaking work at the interface between these two fields has come from studies of insects. Yet there has never been a symposium at any major conference dedicated the evolution of developmental mechanisms in insects. Since our symposium will be part of the largest entomological gathering in the world, the PIs have the unique opportunity to harness a tremendous breadth of biological expertise in insect science towards a more complete and satisfying unification of evolutionary and developmental biology. They bring together investigators from around the world, but bias our participant list towards young investigators who are in the process of establishing lifetime research programs that explicitly integrate developmental with evolutionary biology. Their invited speakers use the powerful tools of developmental and molecular biology to test specific evolutionary questions in related species. This approach has historical precedent as a useful method of forging a meaningful synthesis between developmental and evolutionary biology. They anticipate that interactions derived from this symposium will establish new collaborations and reveal novel directions for future integrative entomological research.