Organizers: Prosanta Chakrabarty & Brant Faircloth
Affiliation: LSU Museum of Natural Science, Los Angeles, USA
prosanta@lsu.edu
brant@faircloth-lab.org
Lead contact: Prosanta Chakrabarty

Description: Ultraconserved elements (UCEs) are powerful new phylogenomic markers that can be used to examine relationships of organisms using loci at genomic scales to answer both deep- and shallow-scale evolutionary questions. Hundreds to thousands of loci can be obtained representing millions of base pairs of sequences that are orders of magnitude larger than what has been traditionally obtained from Sanger sequencing methods. These data also come with many new analytical challenges. We propose a symposium from 11 prominent scholars using UCEs to study Indo-Pacific fishes to present talks at the 2017 IPFC in Tahiti.

Expected Audience: We expect a wide audience based on the following talk titles and speakers. These speakers are well known in the field of systematic ichthyology and have agreed to attend if the symposium is approved : Brant Faircloth (LSU) – Methodologies and Analytics of UCE Phylogenetics; Michael Alfaro (UCLA) – A UCE Backbone of the Acanthomorph Phylogeny; Thomas J. Near (Yale) – A Percomorph Phylogeny using UCEs ; Chris Kenaley (Boston College) – Evolution of Suction Discs in the Remoras (Percomorpha: Carangiformes: Echeneidae): A Phylogenomic and Comparative Approach Based on Analysis of Ultraconserved Elements; Prosanta Chakrabarty (LSU) – Phylogeny of Ostariophysi; Bill Ludt (LSU) – Phylogenomic Resolution of a Historically Troublesome Order of Fishes (Centrarchiformes); Melanie Stiassny (American Museum of Natural History)– Phylogeny of Lamprologines using UCEs (Cichlidae); Princess Gilbert (UCLA) – Comparing UCEs and Traditional Markers; Sarah Longo (UC Davis)- Resolving deep and shallow relationships among syngnathiform fishes using ultraconserved elements ; Rich Harrington (Yale) – Phylogeny of Anabantimorpha and Carangimorpha; Fernando Alda (LSU) – Phylogeny of Stomiiformes.