20th (Fri) - 23rd (Mon) January 2006 at Okazaki Conference Center,
National Institute for Basic Biology, Okazaki , 444-8585, Japan
The purpose of this conference is to discuss recent progress of our understanding of reproductive strategies with a very broad view from theoretical to experimental, from molecular biology to natural history, and from bacteria to animals and plants.
Although the sexual reproduction evolved certainly later than and costs certainly more than asexual reproduction, multicellular organisms that reproduce exclusively by asexual reproduction are absolutely rare. Sexual reproduction is certainly beneficial to the species but not necessarily to the individuals on which the natural selection primarily works. Why sexual reproduction is so widespread today is still one of the most perplexing questions in biology. Thus we will discuss on the origin and evolution of sex as well as its determination and changes, and sexual behaviors.
The life cycle and its complexities vary from species to species, and many organisms change reproductive strategy within a few generations and/or even in a single generation: for example, asexual or sexual, biparental or uniparental (bisexual or parthenogenic, and selfing or crossing), oviparous or viviparous. Thus we will discuss on the selection and switch of alternative reproductive strategies.
The developmental mode which also differs species to species is an important part of reproductive mode. For example, sexually reproducing multicellular organisms start their life cycle as a zygote, pass through embryonic and larval stages, reach adulthood when they generally produce offspring, and eventually die. Thus we will discuss the modes of development and reproduction as a whole, such as semelparous or iteroparous, direct development or indirect (larval forms), solitary or colonial or social.
Motonori Hoshi
Organizer, 52nd NIBB Conference
Organizer:
Motonori Hoshi (Keio Univ.)
Co-Organizers:
Tim R. Birkhead (Univ. Sheffield)
Satoru Kobayashi (NIBB)
Marvalee H. Wake (Univ. California, Berkeley)