The recent EMBO conference on comparative genomics of eukaryotic microorganisms provided a forum for discussion of some of the biggest and most challenging questions in evolutionary biology. The conference aimed to bring together worldwide experts in the field, and facilitate debate around the current state and future of comparative genomics of eukaryotic organisms.

In a meeting report published in EvoDevo today, Inaki Ruiz-Trillo and Alex de Mendoza convey the key points broached in the conference and highlight areas of interest to the EvoDevo community. They discuss the implications of technological advances (notably in high throughput sequencing) which are allowing rapid sequencing of novel genomes. These new genome sequences have the potential to reveal a range of insights into the emergence of eukaryotic diversity, biology and evolution.

A range of presentations proved to be relevant to evolutionary developmental biologists. Of particular interest were discussions on the use of sub-telomeric regions and the generation of genetic diversity, experimental evolution as a basis to study directional selection, the role of horizontal gene transfer in convergent evolution, new phylogenetic methods in constructing the tree of life, and symposia on mitochondrial genomes and metagenomics.

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