The Emergence and Maintenance of Microbial Diversity

The richness of diversity found in our microbial world is astounding. Understanding the evolutionary forces that led to the emergence and maintenance of this diversity will be the central focus of the 2017 Microbial Population Biology Gordon Research Conference. The conference will bring together thought leaders from a spectrum of disciplines to present and discuss empirical data and theoretical concepts pertinent to the adaptive evolution of not only microbes, but all other forms of life. The findings of basic research done to develop and test evolutionary theory, or to assess and model evolutionary and functional networks will be interwoven with studies done to meet the modern day challenges of emerging infectious diseases, the arms race of antibiotic resistance, sustainable use of natural resources, and global warming.

Significant advances in technology have accelerated and deepened our ability to explore the evolutionary history of life on Earth. The earliest ones were spawned by the seminal work of Carl Woese and colleagues who used phylogenetic analyses of rRNA genes to discover new life forms and to unveil the extraordinary species diversity found on our planet. More recently we have crossed the threshold of a new frontier in which whole genome sequencing has increased our insights to diversity within microbial populations, genome evolution, the genetic basis of interspecies interactions, host-microbe coevolution, horizontal gene transfer, and so much more. These insights are needed to anticipate and effectively treat or prevent infectious diseases that exact a high cost on the health of humans, other animals and plants.

Had Darwin seen the teeming microbial life that resided in his tangled bank he would have been even more in awe of the species richness and complexity of ecosystems, and he too might have speculated that we are just guests in the microbial world that will be described and discussed at the conference.