Evo-chromo: towards an integrative approach of chromatin dynamics across eukaryotes

EVO-DEVO has provided deep changes in our understanding of developmental mechanisms and widened the scope of the diversity of solutions found by distinct groups of organisms to control embryogenesis and differentiation. Although the field of epigenetics and chromatin revolutionized our understanding of biology in the past decade, most studies have been confined to a few model organisms, while evolutionary considerations have been largely left aside. Yet, recent forays into the biology of non-model organisms are revealing an unexpected diversity of chromatin and epigenetic regulation. With the rapid expansion of newly sequenced genomes it is now time to combine the expertise in molecular evolution and chromatin biology. This workshop will explore the following new fields of research;

1. Expansion of genomic and proteomic data mining to reconstruct the evolutionary trajectories of chromatin composition and regulation
2. New tools to access and combine the extensive genomic data in a large range of organisms for comparative genomics
3. Impact of chromatin on Genome dynamics
4. New experimental tools and model systems to explore the diversity of chromatin
5. The reciprocal impacts between chromatin dynamics and evolution of genome architecture

This is the first proposal of its kind integrating skills and interests of the fields of chromatin biology and evolutionary biology. The major objective of this workshop is to foster the initiation of a new field of biology that associates molecular phylogeny, genomics, genetics and structural biology applied to chromatin and genome regulation studies. This workshop will combine the expertise of these fields to comprehend the global picture of chromatin dynamics across evolution.

We anticipate that the development of EVO-CHROMO will have a deep impact in biology.
1) It will promote development of new model organisms to fill the gaps in the current representation of existing biological diversity.
2) New insights in chromatin biology and genome structure will be obtained.
3) Exploration of the interdependency between phylogenetics, chromatin composition and genome architecture is expected to lead to new concepts in evolution.