Symposium: Origins of Neurons and Parallel Evolution of Nervous Systems: the Dawn of Neuronal Organization

 

The origin of neurons, neural systems and complex brains is one of the major transitions in evolution. It might occur more than once over 600 million years. Here, we will bring leading experts in the field to decipher critical events leading to development of complex integrative and cognitive functions within the entire animal kingdom. The symposium will uncover the emerging models and interdisciplinary approaches in reconstruction of nervous system evolution: (i) from unicellular eukaryotes to animal with elementary intelligence; (ii) from genomes to behaviors; (iii) from genomics and epigenomics of single neurons to neural circuits and complex brains; (iv) from neurogenesis to new mechanisms of memories inspired by comparative models.

Together with advantages in computational and comparative genomics, evolutionary neuroscience, proteomic and developmental biology a new surprising picture have being emerged – the picture that reveals many ways of how nervous systems evolved. As a result, this symposium would provide a unique opportunity to set up the stage and revisit the old questions about the origins of biological complexity.

 

Sponsors: DEDB, DIZ, DNB, DPCB, AMS

 

Organizers:

• Leonid L Moroz, University of Florida

 

Speakers:

S5.1 Monday, Jan. 5, 08:00 MOROZ, Leonid L.:

Convergent evolution of neurons and synapses from distinct cell lineages. NeuroSystematics: from Ctenophores to Vertebrates

S5.2 Monday, Jan. 5, 08:30 HALANYCH, K. M.*; KOCOT, K. M.; WHELAN, N. V.:

Early animal relationships: Alternative hypotheses and character inference

S5.3 Monday, Jan. 5, 09:00 KOHN, A.B.*; MOROZ, L.L.:

Genomic portrait of synapses and their evolution

S5.4 Monday, Jan. 5, 09:30 SATTERLIE, Richard:

Cnidarian Neurobiology: The Thrill of Evolutionary Advances and the Agony of Phylogenetic Constraints

S5.5 Monday, Jan. 5, 10:30 NAKANISHI, N*; DEGNAN, S.M; DEGNAN, B.M:

Sensory biology of sponge settlement and metamorphosis: towards defining the baseline for nervous system evolution

S5.6 Monday, Jan. 5, 11:00 LUTTRELL, S.; SWORE, J.J.; FODOR, A.; SWALLA, B.J.*:

Evolution of Deuterostome Nervous Systems: A nerve cord runs through it

S5.7 Monday, Jan. 5, 11:30 GILLETTE, R:

Specialists of Simplicity: Soft Bodies, Little Brains, and Low Cunning

S5.8 Monday, Jan. 5, 13:30 YOSHIDA, M.A.*; OGURA, A.; IKEO, K; KOHN, A.B.; WINTERS, G.; MOROZ, L.L.:

Convergent evolution of brains, eyes and vasculatures in cephalopod molluscs

S5.9 Monday, Jan. 5, 14:00 WHELAN, Nathan V*; KOCOT, Kevin M; HALANYCH, Kenneth M:

Resolving the metazoan tree of life with advanced bioinformatic pipelines and phylogenetic methods

S5.10 Monday, Jan. 5, 14:30 PAULAY, Gustav:

Nervous diversity: variation in reproductive signaling influences the dynamics of speciation across animals

S5.11 Monday, Jan. 5, 15:00 DABE, E.C.*; SANFORD, R.S.; BOSTWICK, C.J.; WILLIAMS, P.L.; RIVA, A.; KOHN, A.B.; MOROZ, L.L.:

Epigenomics of Neuroplasticity in Invertebrates: Part 1. Cell Identity

S5.12 Monday, Jan. 5, 15:15 SANFORD, R, S*; DABE, E, D; BOSTWICK, C, J; RIVA, A; WILLIAMS, P, L; KOHN, A, B; MOROZ, L, L:

Epigenomics of Neuroplasticity in Invertebrates: Part 2. Probing relationships between memory, injury, and development