See Twitter posts from the meeting at https://twitter.com/i/moments/1201086680553398274.

The 61st Phylogenetic Symposium will focus on reticulate evolution and will take place at the Department of Animal Evolution and Biodiversity of the University of Göttingen.

Ever since Darwin’s theory of evolution suggested a common ancestry of all life on earth phylogenetic trees have been used to visualize its relationships. However, evolutionary histories cannot always be adequately represented as bifurcating phylogenetic trees. Prime example is the symbiogenic origin of eukaryotes from the merger of an archaean and a bacterium. Besides symbiogenesis, other processes such as horizontal gene transfer, hybridization, divergence with gene flow result in reticulation of phylogenetic trees, the origination of lineages through complete or partial merging of two or more ancestor lineages. Reticulate evolution is well documented across the tree of life, including many examples from plants and animals. We are looking forward to bringing together experts from different backgrounds to summarize recent progress in the field of reticulate evolution.

The registration deadline is 13 Nov (please let us know is you are planning to participate in the dinner). The deadline for poster presentation submissions (including an abstract) is 31 Oct. Registration for the conference is free, but we ask for a €10 donation to contribute toward the coffee breaks. Participation in the conference dinner on Saturday, 23 Nov is €20. Please submit registration requests to uschach@gwdg.de.

The preliminary program is as follows (see the meeting homepage for updates):

Friday, November 22
18:00 – 22:00 Arrival and registration
19:30 Ice Breaker (Foyer, Untere Karspüle 2, 37073 Göttingen)

Saturday, November 23
(Lecture hall MN34, Untere Karspüle 2, 37073 Göttingen)

08:30 – 08:45 Welcome address from the University of Göttingen
08:45 – 09:00 Introduction to the Phylogenetic Symposium (Christoph Bleidorn, Elvira Hörandl)
09:00 – 10:00 Andrew Watson (Université Pierre et Marie Curie, France). Chimeric genes in chimeric genomes

10:00 – 10:30 Coffee Break

10:30 – 11:30 Pamela S. Soltis (University of Florida, USA). Polyploidy and Plant Diversification
11:30 – 12:30 Christian Roos, Dietmar Zinner (German Primate Center, Göttingen, Germany). Hybridization and introgression in primates

12.30 – 14.00 Open lunch

14.00 – 15:00 Marta Barluenga (Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales Madrid, Spain). Hybrid speciation in cichlid fish
15:00 – 16:00 Judith Fehrer (The Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic). Reticulate evolution at different levels in plants: detection and interpretation

16:00 – 16:30 Coffee break

16:30 – 17:30 Mathilde Cordellier (University of Hamburg, Germany). Ecological genomics in Daphnia: travelling in space and time
17:30 – 18:30 Bengt Oxelman (University of Gothenburg, Sweden). Species delimitation and phylogenetics of allopolyploids under the multispecies coalescent model

18:30 – 19:30 Poster session

20:00 – Conference dinner in the restaurant “Zum Szültenbürger”

Sunday, November 24
(Lecture hall MN34, Untere Karspüle 2, 37073 Göttingen)

09:00 – 10:00 Christoph Oberprieler (University of Regensburg, Germany). Gordian Networks - The dark arts of phylogenetics and species delimitation in polyploid complexes
10:00 – 11:00 Alexander Suh (Uppsala University, Sweden). Reconciling the phylogeny of birds with trees and networks

11:00 – 11:30 Coffee break

11:30 – 12:30 Summary and general discussion of presented topics (Christoph Bleidorn, Elvira Hörandl)
12.30 – 12.40 Farewell (Christoph Bleidorn, Elvira Hörandl)

13.00 – Optional: guided tour through the Old Botanical Garden

We are looking forward to welcoming you in Göttingen!

Christoph Bleidorn & Elvira Hörandl