EVOLTREE summer school "Next generation sequencing" - September 6^th - 9^th in Udine (Italy)

NGS has recently revolutionized the approach to genome sequencing enabling the sequencing of billions of bases in massively parallel reactions and opened new horizons and challenging opportunities.

The course "NGS: from samples to data analysis" took place at Institute of Applied Genomics (IGA) from 6th to 9th September and was addressed to researchers interested in understanding how to generate sequences and interpret the obtained information. Aim of the course was to give a true practical overview of the process with the support of experts and technicians that are daily committed in this work. 19 researchers from Austria, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Sweden, U.K. arrived to IGA in Udine (Italy) to attend the course. The participants have been guided to follow the entire process of a next generation sequencing run, from preparing DNA/RNA libraries from the biological sample to the analysis of data focused on the Illumina platform. During the course have been discussed the topics of sample preparation, bioinformatics workflow set-up after Illumina sequencing (from primary bioinformatics analysis to genomic variants detection), and informatics infrastructures organization around an Illumina instrument. Speakers, qualified in different applications, were invited to talk about genome and target re-sequencing, RNA-seq, SmallRNA-seq, sequencing of PCR pools for rare variants detection. The group participated in the sessions from the very beginning with questions and contributions that enriched the level of the discussion creating a positively pleasant and interactive atmosphere.

EVOLTREE summer school "Functions of microbial communities in soils: sustainable use of biotic resources" - October 4^th - 14^th 2011, Helmholtz Zentrum München, German

The Summer School offered lectures by invited speakers specialised in different topics related to the ecology of soil microbial communities and their activities. Funding came from EvolTREE, the French-Bavarian-University and the graduate school HELENA of the Helmholtzzentrum München. Practical courses complemented the lectures by addressing specific soil related approaches in microbial ecology. The practical courses started with an excursion to the research station "Scheyern" with soil and root sampling in soils under different tillage practices and in agroforestry systems. Laboratory courses on soil enzyme and mycorrhizal activities provided insights into preparation of soil and roots samples, recognition of mycorrhizal roots, principles and practical performance of fluorescence based and photometric microplate enzyme assays. A second block focused on genes involved in nitrification including important steps in DNA-based analyses of soil microbial communities: DNA-extraction, qPCR, and t-RFLP. The interpretation and discussion of the data complemented the practical part. The concept of giving insights into the complete procedure from sampling to different laboratory techniques for analyses was highly appreciated by the participants from Tunisia, Switzerland, France and Germany. We plan to organise a follow up of this summerschool in two years time in Nancy (France).

EVOLTREE Summer Schools - "Evolutionary Quantitative Genetics" 15th - 18th November in Bordeaux (France)

Seventeen participants took part to the summer shools that took place at the University of Bordeaux. Participants came from France, Germany, Greece, Poland, Croatia, Spain,UK. The school was divided in four major sessions:

- Monitoring of evolutionary changes in natural populations by simulations,
- Assessing population differentiation in natural populations and
- Case studies (traits, environmental gradients).

An extra bonus session on "genomic selection" was organized the last day, which was also attended by local participants.