Meeting: Stress phenotype: linking molecular, cellular and physiological stress (Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology Symposium, January 5, 2019 in Tampa, FL).

North Dakota State University Fargo, Fargo ND

Investigators

Abstract

Most organisms respond to environmental and social stressors by a stress response. However, knowledge of how the stress response is integrated across levels of organization from molecules, to cells, to the whole organism remains limited. This symposium will bring together biologists across levels of organization and at different career stages to gain a richer insight into how organisms respond to stress. During the symposium, speakers from different levels of organization will alternate with one another. Immediately following the symposium, a structured round table discussion will be hosted aimed at identifying key outstanding questions in stress biology and integrative approaches that can be used to study the stress responses of animals, including domesticated and rare species, across levels of organization. There will also be complimentary oral and poster sessions geared towards early career scientists from diverse backgrounds to increase the potential for idea exchange and collaborations between scientists at different career stages and that traditionally study the stress response at different levels of analyses. Most organisms initiate a highly conserved stress response in the face of environmental and social stressors. Yet, information about how the stress response is integrated across levels of biological organization from genomes to phenomes is incomplete. However, it is becoming increasingly clear that a comprehensive understanding of the evolution of the stress response will require integrative studies that span levels of analyses. This information will be critical for predicting how selection will influence the expression of this complex phenotype at the organismal level, as well as how the integration of the underlying mechanisms will influence the evolutionary response to selection. As diverse organisms are expected to experience rising stress exposure in the face of anthropogenic disturbance and rapidly changing environments, this knowledge is becoming increasingly urgent. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.