The topic of this year symposium is “Phenotype-Genotype interactions” with an emphasis on recent major advances in defining the interaction between genes and observable traits. Several recent studies are providing quantitative insights into how the human genome affects phenotypic variation. At the same time, innovative computational techniques are being developed to reveal signatures of biological adaptation through the investigation of natural selection in response to environmental changes, admixture, and archaic introgression, among others. This symposium will focus on contributions dealing with extant and extinct hominins for which both present-day and ancient DNA data are available, considered alongside morphological and linguistic records with the aim to help shed light on the evolutionary processes leading to major transformations such as (self)-domestication, the evolution of speech and human cognition. The goal of this symposium is to foster scientific exchange towards a better understanding of the genetic mechanisms affecting past and current morphological, developmental, metabolic, and behavioural characteristics.
