Symposium: Tapping the Power of Crustacean Transcriptomes to Address Grand Challenges in Comparative Biology, Portland, Oregon, January 3-7, 2016

Society For Integrative And Comparative Biology, Herndon VA

Investigators

Abstract

Transcriptomic research approaches allow investigators to comprehensively analyze the profile of messenger RNA used to produce protein in cells or tissue samples. The most popular such approach, called "RNA-seq" (for RNA-sequencing) is finding its way into all areas of comparative and integrative biology, yielding insights that are difficult or impossible to attain with the traditional protein-by-protein or gene-by-gene approach. But, there are impediments to using the technology, especially for novel or so-called "non-model" organisms. This award will support a symposium, "Tapping the Power of Crustacean Transcriptomes to Address Grand Challenges in Comparative Biology," and associated activities that will be held at the Society for Comparative & Integrative Biology (SICB) meeting in Portland, Oregon Jan. 3-7, 2016. The symposium will help researchers both identify, and move past such impediments. The symposium is co-sponsored by The Crustacean Society and five SICB Divisions. In addition, the PI and symposium organizers are Executive Committee members of the Animal Genome to Phenome Research Coordination Network (AG2P RCN). The program consists of 11 presentations representing six research areas using transcriptomics to a variety of research questions in crustacean biology. There will be a complementary session with speakers selected from submitted abstracts. The accompanying luncheon, feedback booth, Twitter feed, and workshop will further broaden participation across disciplines, gender, ethnicity, and professional rank. The activities supported by this award will include: (1) a lunch scheduled early in the meeting to introduce the AG2P RCN; (2) an RNA-seq feedback booth in the exhibition hall and Twitter feed to gather comments and identify needs from SICB members; and (3) a transcriptomics workshop to review pipelines and best practices that include responses from the feedback booth. Expected outcomes of the workshop include a policy paper on creating an interface and pipeline for the analysis of RNA-seq data, and recruitment of participants in the AG2P RCN. Conference papers planned for publication in the SICB journal, Integrative and Comparative Biology (ICB) will serve as a valuable resource for future researchers.