On Tuesday 9th December there will be an intensive 1-day research course offered, open to interested researchers and ECR and HDR.

During the remainder of the fortnight working group participants will focus on developing evolutionary accounts of the Australian flora through selected situations where some knowledge is available about all four of ecological traits, phylogenetic distribution, gene function and genomics.

Background
The Australian continent presents to plants and other organisms countless challenges, which been met in diverse and often unique ways. Determining the functional traits that are essential to ecological interactions is not trivial, but identifying the genes that have made these traits possible is an even more difficult undertaking. Nevertheless this is a worthy goal for several reasons. Such genes are likely to prove important for adaptive responses to climate change (and may be useful for crop improvement). If major selection events can be identified and their timing estimated, this could provide useful tests of our current understanding of the climate history of the continent. Finally, being able to identify the crucial genes will aid our understanding of community assemblages and the interactions among organisms.

Last Updated October 2008