This international workshop is aimed at researchers from diverse disciplines and career stages who are interested in the evolutionary transition to multicellularity. Leading scientists from around the world will come together for three days of engaging discussions on the early steps of multicellular evolution.
Members of IBE’s Multicellgenome Lab, Inaki Ruiz Trillo, Marta Alvarez, Guifre Toruella, and Victoria Shabardina, together with Koryu Kin from Jutendo University and Aurora Nedelcu from New Brunswick University, are co-organizing this unique event with the support of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO). This workshop, part of EMBO’s prestigious Workshop Programme recognizing events of exceptional scientific quality, is also supported by the Society for the Study of Evolution and the PRBB.
Abstract submission will close on June 1st, and selected participants will be notified by June 20th. The registration deadline is July 20th.
For more information and registration refer to the EMBO website for the workshop.
About the Workshop
The study of the origins and evolution of multicellularity in different lineages has recently captured the attention of many research groups and is fueling the generation of numerous innovative research articles.
This workshop will explore whether universal principles of multicellularity exist or whether each lineage follows a fundamentally distinct path and address key questions such as: Can we identify universal principles of multicellularity and/or fundamental differences intrinsic to each lineage? Also, can we improve or modify our approaches and formulate new questions and hypotheses?
The workshop will bring together researchers interested in different multicellular lineages, including complex multicellular plants, animals, and fungi as well as multicellular algae, protists, and prokaryotes.
Participants and speakers will discuss the origins of cell differentiation and germ-soma segregation, genome evolution, modelling, and mechanics of complex systems. It will also cover the topic of the evolutionary impacts of multicellularity, including potential downsides like the emergence of tumors.
About the Multicellgenome Lab
The Multicellgenome Lab of the IBE works to understand the origin of animal multicellularity from a unicellular ancestor. To this end, the genomes of animals’ closest unicellular relatives are obtained in order to perform comparative and functional genomics. Moreover, the Multicellgenome lab is working on the development of genetic tools in two close unicellular relatives of animals with the purpose of establishing them as model organisms for addressing the origin of Metazoa. This will enable the elucidation of the ancestral function of the genes involved in multicellularity and offer insight into how they were co-opted.
EMBO Workshop Program
Session 1: Conceptual views on the study of the origins of multicellularity
Chair: TBA
Hybrid. Invited talk, provisional title: The problem of biological individuality and the definitions of multicellular organisms
Laura Nuño de la Rosa
Hybrid. Invited talk, provisional title: Insights on the origin of multicellularity in groups such as animals, plants, and fungi from a paleontological perspective
Philip Donoghue
Hybrid. Selected talk
TBA
Hybrid. Poster flash talks
Session 2: Organismal diversity of multicellularity
Chair: TBA
Hybrid. Invited talk, provisional title: Modes of gene evolution and the origins of multicellularity
Jordi Paps
Hybrid. Selected talk
TBA
Hybrid. Selected talk
TBA
Hybrid. Selected talk
TBA
Hybrid. Invited talk, provisional title: What can we learn about animal embryonic development from studying bacterial biofilms
Tomislav Domazet-Lošo
Hybrid. Poster flash talks
Poster session. Off-line and online
Session 3: Model systems in multicellularity: from unicellular to multicellular, old and new
Chair: TBA
Hybrid. Invited talk, provisional title: What makes an embryo in sponges; an evolutionary perspective
Maja Adamska
Hybrid. Selected talk
TBA
Hybrid. Selected talk
TBA
Hybrid. Selected talk
TBA
Hybrid. Invited talk, provisional title: Evolution of multicellularity-related genes in unicellular lineages
Hiroshi Suga
Hybrid. Poster flash talks
Hybrid. Round table: How and why we should unite efforts from different multicellular systems
Session 4: Genome Evolution
Chair: TBA
Hybrid. Invited talk, provisional title: The role of horizontal gene transfer in the emergence of multicellularity in plants, animals, and algae
Nicolas Irwin
Hybrid. Seletcted talk
TBA
Hybrid. Seletcted talk
TBA
Hybrid. Seletcted talk
TBA
Hybrid. Invited talk, provisional title: Evolution of gene families key to the formation of multicellular fruiting bodies in fungi
László Nagy
Hybrid. Poster flash talks
Session 5: Experimental evolution
Chair: TBA
Hybrid. Invited talk, provisional title: The era of experimental evolution in multicellularity studies
William Ratcliff
Hybrid. Selected talk
TBA
Hybrid. Selected talk
TBA
Hybrid. Selected talk
TBA
Hybrid. Invited talk, provisional title: Plastic unicellular-to-multicellular transitions in marine fungi
Gohta Goshima
Hybrid. Poster flash talks
Poster session. Off-line and online
Session 6: Modeling and mechanics of complex systems
Chair: TBA
Hybrid. Invited talk, provisional title: The logistics of living systems: from synthetic multicellularity to modeling tumors
Ricard Solé
Hybrid. Selected talk
TBA
Hybrid. Selected talk
TBA
Hybrid. Selected talk
TBA
Hybrid. Invited talk, provisional title: Employing gastruloid models to study multicellularity
Vikas Trivedi
Session 7: Different ways to be multicellular
Chair: TBA
Hybrid. Invited talk, provisional title: Evolution of aggregative multicellularity in bacteria
Marco La Fortezza
Hybrid. Selected talk
TBA
Hybrid. Selected talk
TBA
Hybrid. Selected talk
TBA
Hybrid. Invited talk, provisional title: Social amoebae and the evolution of collective phenotypes
Elizabeth Ostrowski
Session 8: Environmental triggers and phenotypic plasticity
Chair: TBA
Hybrid. Invited talk: provisional title: Filastereans and choanoflagellates: what can the unicellular relatives of animals tell us about the origins of Metazoa?
Núria Ros-Rocher
Hybrid. Selected talk
TBA
Hybrid. Selected talk
TBA
Hybrid. Selected talk
TBA
Hybrid. Invited talk, provisional title: The role of environmental factors in the multicellularity of cyanobacteria and microalgae
Katrin Hammerschmidt
Session 9: Conflicts in the evolution and stability of multicellularity
Chair: TBA
Hybrid. Invited talk, provisional title: From green algal multicellularity to tumorigenesis and evo-devo of cancer
Aurora Nedelcu
Hybrid. Invited talk, provisional title: Tumours as a model for the origin of animals
Emma Hammarlund
Session 10: Cell differentiation and sex
Chair: TBA
Hybrid. Invited talk, provisional title: Embryology and cell fate in brown and red algae
Susana Coelho
Hybrid. Selected talk
TBA
Hybrid. Selected talk
TBA
Hybrid. Selected talk
TBA
Hybrid. Invited talk, provisional title: Diversifying cell types in an evolving multicellularity in plants
Dolf Weijers
Hybrid. Round table: What have we learnt? Can we develop a common framework? Future perspectives
