News/Insect Pest Workshop, 16-17 Nov
Given the development of cheaper high throughput sequencing technologies, it is easy to predict that in the very near future, new genomes of insects relevant to agriculture will be available. This opens several other challenges such as the bioinformatics treatment of the raw data (handling of billions of sequences, assembly of short reads…) and the development of databases opened to biologists for an easy, friendly and efficient extraction of information. With access to several insect species genomes, one will not only work on their favourite insect, but will take advantage of the increasing knowledge from genomic comparison analyses. This compels the community to develop standards for different tasks towards the exploitation of genome sequences: annotation, cross-species comparisons, interoperability between databases, ... Several tools and databases already exist and are used for genome browsing and annotation.
In that context, the purpose of this workshop will be:
- To exchange within an international panel of attendants our views on the present and future of insect genome databases
- To settle an international community that will form a functional network for insect genome and database development
- To discuss strategies to meet the demand of increasing number of new insect genomes
- To prepare a new road map for integration of genomes databases for insects relevant to agriculture
The perimeter of that discussion encompasses insect species related to agriculture, either harmful (pests) or beneficial as controllers of pest populations or as producers of plant by-products (such as silk, honey, ...).
Registration for the meeting is free and has to be done online on this website and will be limited to 40 participants. A statement of interest is needed. A 10 minute presentation may be asked.
