Abstract
The central role of the mitochondrion for cellular and organismal metabolism is well known, yet its functional role in evolution has rarely been featured in leading international conferences. Moreover, the contribution of mitochondrial genetics to complex disease phenotypes is particularly important, and although major advances have been made in the field of genomics, mitochondrial genomic data have in many cases been overlooked. Accumulating data and new knowledge support a major contribution of this maternally inherited genome, and its interactions with the nucleus, to both major evolutionary processes and diverse disease phenotypes. These advances encouraged us to assemble the first Mitochondrial Genomics and Evolution (MGE) meeting—an SMBE satellite and Israeli Science foundation international conference (Israel, September 2017). Here, we report the content and outcome of the MGE meeting (https://www.mge2017.com/; last accessed November 5, 2017).
| Original language | American English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 3054-3058 |
| Number of pages | 5 |
| Journal | Genome Biology and Evolution |
| Volume | 9 |
| Issue number | 11 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 1 Nov 2017 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The MGE conference and resultant report were funded by the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution, the Israeli Science Foundation (grant number 2194/17), the Israeli Ministry of Science, Technology and Space, the Company of Biologists (grant number EA1278), and in part from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (president office) and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The authors would also like to express
Funding Information:
The gap between biomedical research recognizing the important phenotypic effects of mitonuclear interactions and the limited understanding of its evolutionary consequences strongly motivated us to stimulate discussion among a group of researchers from the fields of genomics, molecular evolution and mitochondrial biology (supplementary table S1, Supplementary Material online) in a combined scientific meeting entitled “Mitochondrial Genomics and Evolution” (abbreviated to MGE), held in the exotic location of the Ein-Gedi oasis, Israel (September 3–6) (conference website: https://www.mge2017.com/; last accessed November 5, 2017). We were fortunate that this new conference topic attracted the attention of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution (SMBE), who provided support as a satellite SMBE meeting. This positive response was matched by equal enthusiasm from the Israeli Science foundation, Israeli Ministry of Science and Technology, and the Company of Biologists (see Acknowledgments), thus significantly facilitating the success of this meeting.
Funding Information:
The MGE conference and resultant report were funded by the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution, the Israeli Science Foundation (grant number 2194/17), the Israeli Ministry of Science, Technology and Space, the Company of Biologists (grant number EA1278), and in part from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (president office) and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The authors would also like to express their thanks to Mrs Lynn Lipschitz and Ms Vikki Hyman from Target Conferences for assisting in all administrative aspects of the conference.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author 2017.
Keywords
- Evolution
- Genomics
- Mitochondria
- Mitochondrial DNA