ISOP and IWOP-9 Program
A full program (current as of June 14) is available for download: Word document or PDF
INVITED SPEAKERS AND SCHEDULED EVENTS:
Hutner Young Investigator Award Lecture
Patrick Keeling, University of British Columbia - "Lateral Gene Transfer and Compact Genomes"
Vice President's Address
Rebecca Gast, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute - "Protist Diversity in Antarctica"
Symposium:
"Antigenic Variation" (James Stringer, convener) - June 21
- Helmut Schmidt & Martin Simon, University of Kaiserslautern - Ciliates
- James Stringer, University of Cincinnati - Pneumocystis
- J. David Barry, University of Glasgow - Trypanosomes
- Artur Scherf - Institut Pasteur - Plasmodium
Symposium:
"Intracellular Trafficking and Host-Pathogen Intracellular Trafficking" (Stephen Hajduk, convener) - June 23
- Stephen Hajduk, Marine Biological Lab - "African Trypanosomes: Intracellular Trafficking of Host Defense Molecules"
- Markus Engstler, University of Munich - "African Trypanosomes: Cycling of the Trypanosome Surface Coat"
- Deborah Smith, University of York - "Leishmania: Trafficking and Function of Acylated Proteins"
- Kasturi Haldar, Northwestern University - "Plasmodium: Vesicle Trafficking in the Infected RBC"
- Anthony Sinai, University of Kentucky - "The Toxoplasma gondii Parasitophorous Vacuole Membrane: Transactions Across the Border"
ISOP Special Topics Platform Sessions:
Open to anyone who wishes to be included in one of these special sessions.
The IWOP-9/ISOP organizers encourage platform presentations. If you have already submitted your abstract for presentation as a poster and wish to change it to a platform presentation, please email Edna Kaneshiro (edna.kaneshiro@uc.edu) indicating the change.
- Biodiversity (contact John Clamp, jclamp@wpo.nccu.edu)
- Signal Transduction (contact Harriet Smith-Sommerville, hsmithso@ua.edu)
- Molecular Approaches in Protistan Ecology (contact Dave Montagnes, dmontag@liv.ac.uk)
- Protistan Parasites in Marine Waters (contact David Lindsay, lindsayd@vt.edu or Patricia Conrad, paconrad@ucdavis.edu)
- Leishmania and leishmaniasis (contact Olga Matos, omatos@ihmt.unl.pt)
Session Speakers
Biodiversity (John Clamp, chair)
Signal Transduction (Harriett Smith-Sommerville, chair)
Molecular Approaches in Protistan Ecology (Dave Montagnes, chair)
Keynote: An ecological perspective on protistan molecular genetics
PC Watts, CD Lowe, DJS Montagnes
Molecular genetic techniques have revolutionized our understanding of ecological and evolutionary processes. The application of DNA sequence data provides a wealth of information on the diversity and function of free-living micro-eukaryotes and has revealed the presence of previously undocumented groups of organisms. To date, much of our applications of molecular methods to protists have been focused towards phylogenetic analyses. Now, the current rapid development of new genomic technologies is set to increase our ability to assess the roles of different protist groups in wider ecosystems by characterizing (i) functional biodiversity, (ii) ecological structure, and (iii) gene function. This brief review will present a synthesis of how new genetic techniques have been applied to uncover patterns of biodiversity and ecological function. We will outline the development of molecular approaches in the study of free-living micro-eukaryotes, compare this with the development of molecular methods applied to higher taxa, and highlight the need to combine more traditional ecological approaches with arising molecular methods. In so doing, we indicate that not only do protists present unique challenges, they also offer a series of unique opportunities. Thus, as more genomic information becomes available, free-living protists are likely to become increasingly useful as model organisms with which to assess a wide range of evolutionary and ecological processes. Protistologists consequently have an exciting opportunity to be at the vanguard of this rapidly developing field.