Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
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Genomic analysis of biological function in farm animals is being carried out to investigate a number of questions in farm animal health, breeding and welfare. It also has uses in the biomedical field creating animal models of disease, early embryo development, comparative genomics and the evolution of the genome.
To explore the farm animal genomes a range of resources has been created with sets of microsatellite markers, BAC, radiation hybrid and cDNA libraries for each species. Databases have been created to manage the data generated from these tools and to construct maps of each genome. This information and the resources have been combined to construct a range of new tools to investigate the structure and function of genes and the genome of farm animals. Combinations of these tools have recently culminated in the sequencing of the chicken and cattle genomes. The challenge now is to integrate this information with studies on the organisation and co-operation of genes and proteins to generate the phenotypes of interest.
Genomics has predominately used a serial approach too identifying the mechanism underlying the myriad of phenotypes in each species. Candidate genes were identified by quantity trait loci (QTL) mapping of resource populations. Taking phenotypes of interest and mapping them to regions of the chromosomes. EST databases are used to identify candidate genes within the QTL. Alternatively, candidate genes were selected using prior knowledge of a gene's function along with the biology and biochemistry of the biological question making it possible to identify genes that may be crucial. By applying markers for different alleles of these genes it is possible to look for associations of the trait with the alleles. These allelic associations do not always denote a direct effect in that phenotype as many traits are the product of many different alleles or QTL.
More recent techniques in functional genomics attempt to cut through the strings of the serial approach to genomic analysis and take a parallel approach to unravelling the biological question. Microarrays are very effective at screening many different gene transcripts simultaneously looking for differences in the levels of expression. Genomic microarrays have also been used to examine the regulatory regions of DNA that interact with proteins to control expression. Microarrays and 2D gel electrophoresis both examine the relationship between the whole range of genes and proteins in a sample at a given point, allowing extrapolation of any potential relationships that associate with the observed phenotype.
The conference will be structured around themes each with invited speakers covering the major topics in farm animal genomics. Each theme will have its own session to investigate the "state of play" in the field of genomics, extrapolating current trends and looking at the requirements to achieve greater insight into the functioning genome.
There will also be an open session to allow new researchers the opportunity to speak. This will be accompanied by a poster session to open up discussions in different areas.
This conference
will give an opportunity to take stock of the current European position in Farm
animal functional genomics, identifying areas for collaborations and the development
of new resources.
The James Watt Centre I within the Heriot-Watt University conference facilities, Edinburgh, UK
18 - 20 September, 2005
Sunday September
18th
13:00 - 14:00 Registration &Coffee
14:00 - 14:15 Welcome by Prof Dave Burt
14:15 - 15:00 Keynote Speaker Prof Daniel Pomp - Carolina Center for
Genome Sciences, USA
"Genetic architecture of growth and fat: integrating quantitative and
molecular techniques"
15:00 - 15:30 Session
1: “Genetics and QTLs” Chairpersons: Luc Janss and DJ DeKoning
Prof Dan Nettleton - Iowa State University, USA
“Identifying Genes Associated with a Quantitative Trait or Quantitative
Trait Locus via Selective Transcriptional Profiling”
15:30 - 16:15 Coffee
16:15 - 17:15 Session 1: “Genetics and QTLs” continued
Prof Leif Andersson - Uppsala University, Sweden
“Genetic dissection of QTLs for growth and body composition using divergent
intercrosses in chicken”
Dr Micha Ron - Agricultural Research Organisation, Israel
“Identification of a missense mutation in the bovine ABCG2 gene with
a major effect on milk yield and composition in Holstein cattle”
18:00 - 20:00 Dinner
Monday September 19th
08:30 - 10:00 Session 2: “Farm animal genomics in industry” Chairperson:
Chris Warkup
Dr Santiago Avendano - Aviagen (tba), UK
“Genomics in the poultry industry"
Dr Graham Plastow - Sygen, UK
“Genomics in the pig industry”
Dr Krista Kühn - FBN Dummerstorf, Germany
“Genomics in the dairy industry”
10:00 - 10:45 Coffee
10:45 - 12:15 Session 3: “Genome Analysis” Chairpersons: Ewan Birney
and Andy Law
Thomas Faraut - INRA, France
“Narcisse and Icarre - tools for comparative EST Analysis”
Abel Ureta-Vidal - EBI, Cambridge, UK
“Genome-wide automatic prediction of orthologues and paralogues in Ensembl”
Laura Elnitski - NHGRI, Bethesda, USA
"Insights into the evolution of regulatory regions using comparative
genomics"
(12:15-12:25) (possibly) Company Presentation
12:25 - 13:45 Lunch
13:45 - 15:45 Session 4: “Functional Genomics meets Physiology” Chairpersons:
Francois Hatey and Claire Wathes
Dr Matt Lucy - University of Missouri, USA
"Lessons learned from the Analysis of Gene Expression in Bovine and
Porcine Ovary"
Dr Alex Evans - University College Dublin, Ireland
“Genomic studies of follicles and embryos”
Speaker tba
15:45 - 17:15 Session 5: Poster session/ Cheese and wine
19:30 - 21:00 Conference Dinner
Tuesday September 20th
08:30 - 9:45 Session 6: Open Session chaired by Dave Burt
09:45 - 10:30 Coffee
10:30 - 12:00 Session 7: “Disease Resistance” Chairpersons: Marie-Helene
Pinard-van der Laan and Steve Bishop
Dr Hans Cheng - Michigan State University, USA
“Integrating genomic approaches to identify resistance genes to Marek's
disease in chicken”
Prof Steve Kemp - ILRI, Nairobi, Kenya
“Identification of genes and mechanisms involved in resistance to trypanosomiasis”
Dr Claire Rogel-Gaillard - INRA, France
"Functional genomic approaches to study pig MHC genes"
(12:00-12:10) Company Presentation
12:10 - 13:15 Lunch
13:15 - 14:45 Session 8: “Innate Immunity” Chairpersons: Pete Kaiser
and David Haig
Dr Rima Zoorob - CNRS, Villejuif, France
“Microarray analysis of IBDV infections”
Dr Dirk Werling - RVC, Hatfield, UK
“Bovine Pattern Recognition Receptors”
Speaker tba
14:45 - 15:15 Coffee
15:15 - 16:00 Session 9: “Funding Opportunities” Chairperson: Ben
Sykes (BBSRC, UK)
Speaker tba
“Future funding opportunities in UK & Europe”
16:00 - 16:15 Closing Prof Alan Archibald
Registration is closed.
