GS7: Beyond the SNP: Structural Variants and Repetitive DNA in Genomics and Evolution

Date: February 15, 2023       

Time: 7pm - 1am UTC

Abstract submission deadline: CLOSED

Registration deadline: February 6, 2023

Geo region/Timezone: Oceania...NA/SA

Abstract: Genomic structural variants (SVs), such as indels, transposable elements, translocations, duplications and inversions, are ubiquitous in nature and account for a sizable fraction of total genomic variation both between and within species. Many of these SVs fall in highly repetitive regions and frequently cannot be mapped. Growing evidence suggests that SVs impact health, disease, and the evolution of adaptive traits in humans and other organisms. However, most evolutionary and population genetic studies to date have failed to quantify or model the impact of SVs, especially in highly repetitive regions, due to the limitations of reference-based, short-read DNA sequencing methods. As a result, new long-read DNA sequencing technologies and assembly-free analytical approaches provide an exciting opportunity to account for SVs even in some of the most challenging regions of the genome, enabling studies of how SVs influence eco-evolutionary adaptation and diversification. With this symposium, we aim to explore two key themes in the study of SVs: [1] genomic/bioinformatic approaches that can detect structural variants and model their evolution; [2] experimental/ecological approaches that test the role of SVs in evolutionary processes such as disease, adaptation, and diversification.