Last weekend, I attended the 11th Annual Arthropod Genomics Symposium (AGS); this was my third time attending AGS. AGS is a smaller conference (~150 attendees) but attracts a healthy mixture of new and established researchers in arthropod genomics. I’ve found everyone to be incredibly nice, open, and supportive – echoing a statement by Rob Waterhouse, it feels like a gathering of old friends.

An excellent set of talks formed the core of the conference program. A few highlights that stuck with me:

  • “Clonal genome evolution and rapid invasive spread of the marbled crayfish” (Julian Gutenkunst): Remarkedly, marbled crayfish, an invasive species discovered in the 1990s, have three sets of 92 chromosomes and reproduce asexually. Meaning, offspring are effectively clones of their mothers. Population genetics analysis has identified as few as four structural variations between populations (compare this with the millions of SNPs observed between mosquito populations).

  • “Insights into the genome organization and non-coding genes of Diaphorina citri, the vector of citrus greening disease” (Surya Saha): As a native Floridian, I’ve heard about citrus greening and its impact on Florida citrus production; it was exciting to see two parts of my world intersect. In addition to presenting interesting insights into the biology of the Diaphorina vector, Surya presented on an large-scale effort with his colleague Prashant Hosmani to engage undergraduates in manual gene annotation. Their consortium spans multiple institutions (including a community college and researchers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture) across multiple states.

  • Stephen “Fringy” Richards: Fringy gave an update on the i5k project, which aims to sequence 5,000 arthropod genomes. With more than 200 genomes sequenced, Fringy announced the pilot project to be completed. He gave an overview of what has been learned, both in terms of sequencing pipelines and from comparative analysis of the genomes sequenced thus far. Fringy finished his talking by presenting the audiences with a challenge: how do we do we fund the sequencing of more genomes?

  • “Reproductive Worker Honey Bees: A Glimpse of Ancestral Sociality” (Beryl Jones): Beryl, a graduate student in the Robinson group at UIUC, described novel observations of cooperate social behavior in worker bees after the loss of the queen. To study this behavior, Beryl used an automated behavior tracking which combines barcoding of individual bees, video recordings, and deep learning to classify social interactions appearing in individual frames. The observational study was followed up with a RNA-Seq gene expression analysis.

Beyond the talks, AGS provided plenty of opportunities for one-on-one and small-group discussions. Since I’ll be starting a tenure track-equivalent position in the Fall, I appreciated hearing about the experiences of new PIs and the advice given to them by more experienced PIs. My poster on unsupervised population genetics led to exciting discussions and feedback as well as potential leads on new data sets. Other researchers also gave me great feedback and ideas on how to engage undergraduates and potential problems to work on.

Overall, AGS was a wonderful experience. I can’t wait for AGS 2019, to be held at Kansas State University.