ID: 613 / 30

Category: Symposia

Track: Pending

Proposed Symposium Title: NEW FRONTIERS IN PLANT PHYLOGENOMICS (SESSION 1 OF 2 – DOUBLE SYMPOSIUM PROPOSED)

Abstract: After three decades of progress dominated by evidence from the plastid genome, vast nuclear genomic datasets are now shedding light on the plant tree of life at an unprecedented scale. This new frontier, driven primarily by the high-throughput sequencing revolution and the rapid development of molecular tools and computational methods, is challenging the community to confront and embrace the true complexity of molecular evolution and its implications for accurate phylogenetic inference. Long established relationships are being questioned as the landscape of gene tree conflict that underlies them is exposed. The biological processes that underpin incongruent topologies and intractable nodes, such as gene/genome duplication and loss, horizontal gene transfer, and ancient hybridisation, as well as incomplete lineage sorting, can be inferred from large nuclear datasets, leading to a more nuanced model of the “tangled tree”. Now that sequence data can be routinely obtained from degraded ancient tissues, collections-based institutions have become genomic treasure troves, complementing ambitious biota-wide surveys of whole genomes. As data volumes outstrip human and computational capacity, the demand for novel molecular and analytical approaches, as well as for informatic infrastructures, is rising. This symposium will be of immense relevance to the entire botanical community. It will explore the latest research at the cutting edge of large-scale phylogenomics in plants, focusing on new tools, datasets, and methods that have broad reach across disciplines. Emphasis will be placed on the growing array of readily accessible phylogenomic infrastructures that are setting the scene for plant tree of life research and that provide the evolutionary backbone upon which plant science rests.

Speaker 1: Michelle Hart, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, 20a Inverleith Row, Edinburgh, Scotland. MHart@rbge.org.uk Title: Darwin Tree of Life – towards reference genomes of an entire flora

Speaker 2: Gillian Khew, Singapore Botanic Gardens, National Parks Board, 1 Cluny Road, Singapore 259569; Nanyang Technological University, School of Biological Sciences, 60 Nanyang Drive, Singapore 637551. gillian_khew@nparks.gov.sg Title: Genome Sequencing of the Flora of Singapore

Speaker 3: Darren Crayn, Australian Tropical Herbarium, James Cook University, Cairns, Queensland, Australia, darren.crayn@jcu.edu.au Title: What use is a continental tree? Phylogenomics of the Australian angiosperm flora.

Topics (Up to three): Phylogenetics and Phylogenomics

Topic 2: Comparative Genomics / Transcriptomics

Topic 3: Bioinformatics

Justification: The big picture, phylogenomic focus of our proposal will be of interest interest to IBC participants. Due to the breadth and high impact of the field, and the anticipated large attendance, we propose here a double symposium (2 x 6 speakers total). Researchers in our carefully curated list are working at the forefront of plant phylogenomics. Together, these invited speakers and organisers are a gender-balanced group, geographically representative (E/SE Asia, S/N America, Europe, Australia), and evenly span career stages from postdoc to established faculty. Under-represented communities will be prioritised from among submitted talks.