„Does evolutionary developmental biology need macroevolution ?
Did macroevolution happen?”

13. bis 14.06.2008, Universität Rostock

Application deadline now: 31. März 2008

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For details and application see:
http://m.gerberding.googlepages.com/dzgworkshop

Max. number of participants: 12

Background:
Evolutionary developmental biology (short “evo-devo”) is a  young area of developmental biology aiming to contribute to understanding the evolution of organisms. Evo-devo and evolutionary biology use different concepts. Evo-devo compares distantly related species such as fly, mouse and Hydra and often runs under the explicit or tacit assumption that differences between them can be explained by Macroevolution that is enabled by a modular architecture of genomes. Evolutionary biology in its field of population genetics compares the genetic architecture of populations and tries to explain differences between populations of one species as adaptive or non-adaptive change of gene frequencies. Macroevolution is not needed in this field. The workshop addresses the question whether evo-devo needs the assumption of Macroevolution for comparisons and whether there is evidence for Macroevolution. To set up two current opposing stands on the question from senior people in the field, two papers from a symposium of the Academy of Sciences USA are recommended reading: Marc Kirschner and John Gerhard arguing in favor of Macroevolution, Evolvability and Modularity and Michael Lynch criticizing these concepts as unfounded and defending populations genetics as basis for any evolutionary study.

Speakers:
Prof. Stefan Richter, Rostock
Prof. Reinhard Schröder, Rostock
Dr. Aziz Aboobaker, Nottingham
Dr. Maja Adamska, Bergen


Kontakt:
Matthias Gerberding, Tübingen
matthiasg@tue.mpg.de