Oct. 24-26, 2009, Yingjie Overseas Exchange Center, Peking University, Beijing, China中文版

Whole-Genome Based Prokaryotic Branches in the Tree of Life

Bailin Hao

T-Life Research Center and Department of Physics, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China
Institute of Theoretical Physics, Academia Sinica, Beijing 100190, China
Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM 87501, USA

Abstract

As a naturalist Charles Darwin did not mention microbes at all in his Origin of Species. However, we know nowadays that prokaryotes are the most successful species on the earth and they make at least half of the total weight of living biomass. Celebrating the 150 year of Darwin’s classic, we cannot ignore the prokaryotic branches in the Tree of Life. Yet how to define the concept of bacterial species is still a subject of current debate. Nevertheless, the rapid progress of genome sequencing techniques and the ever growing accumulation of sequenced prokaryotic genomes provide new angles to look at the problem. We will describe what we have learned from the newly proposed whole-genome based composition vector approach to prokaryotic phylogeny and taxonomy.


Bailin Hao

Fudan University, China

CV

Born in Beijing, China, in 1934.Studied at Beijing Institute of Russian Language in 1953-1954; at Department of Coal Mining, Kharkov Institute for Engineering Economics, Kharkov, Ukraine, in 1954 -1956.
Graduated from Department of Mathematics and Physics, Kharkov State University, Kharkov, Ukraine, in 1959 (Diploma with Honor).
Did graduate study at Moscow State University and The Institute of Physical Problems, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, from 1961 to 1963.
Research Assistant (1959-1963), Research Associate (1963-1978), and Research Professor (1978) at the Institute of Physics, Academia Sinica, Beijing.
Research Professor at the Institute of Theoretical Physics, Academia Sinica, Beijing, since its establishment in 1978 until 2005.
Professor at the T-Life Research Center and Department of Physics, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, since 2001.
Senior International Fellow (2002-2003) and External Faculty (2005-2011), The Santa Fe Institute, New Mexico 87501, USA.
Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, elected November 1980.
Member of the Academy of Science for the Developing World (TWAS), elected 1995.

Mailing address: The T-Life Research Center, Fudan University, 220 Handan Road, Shanghai 200433, China; The Institute of Theoretical Physics, 55 Zhongguancun East Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100190, China.
E-mail: hao @ mail. itp .ac .cn
Fax: (86)10 6256 2587 (ITP, Beijing); (86)21 6565 2305 (T-Life Center, Shanghai)
Office phone: (86)21 6565 2305 (T-Life Center, Shanghai) ; (86)10 6254 1807 (ITP, Beijing)