From hunter-gatherers to farmers: The legacy of domestication

Chairperson: Maud Tenaillon
Génétique Quantitative et Evolution – Le Moulon, IDEEV, Université Paris-Saclay, France
Phone: +44 (0)24 765 75059
Email: maud.tenaillon@cnrs.fr 

Vice-chairperson: Robin Allaby
School of Life Sciences, University of Warwick, UK
Phone: + 44(0)1316507706
Email: R.G.Allaby@warwick.ac.uk

The domestication of plants, animals, and micro-organisms represents one of – if not the – major transitions in recent human history. This process profoundly transformed our societies, our ways of life, and our relationship with nature. By replacing a large share of natural ecosystems with agroecosystems, it triggered ecological changes of great magnitude, the consequences of which we experience today, from the expansion of agriculture to its major impacts on climate and biodiversity.

Studying domestication means exploring a remarkable diversity of species and processes. Archaeology, anthropology, evolutionary biology, genetics, and ecology all contribute to understanding this major transition. How did domestication unfold? Why have relatively few species followed this trajectory? What common patterns emerge from studying their evolution? What can domestication teach us about the history of human societies and their subsistence strategies? How have continued interactions with wild populations influenced the evolution of domesticated forms? How has domestication reshaped interactions between organisms and their associated microbes?

With intensifying environmental and climate challenges, domestication has acquired renewed significance. The emergence of agroecology at the interface between ecology and agronomy, the rapid development of new breeding technologies based on genome editing, and growing interest in de novo domestication or re-domestication are opening new perspectives and raising scientific, societal, and ethical questions relevant to the future of agriculture.

This conference will provide a unique forum for crossing perspectives and fostering interdisciplinary exchange, bringing together researchers working on plants, animals, microorganisms, and the human societies that shaped them. It will address six complementary themes:

• Domestication and evolution of human societies
• Shared patterns underlying phenotypic evolution
• Demographic and selective histories
• Crosstalks between wild and domesticates
• The evolution of biotic interactions in the wake of domestication
• Farming in a changing world

Invited speakers (provisional titles)

Jonas AGUIRRE-LIGUORI (Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, Mérida, México) 
Forecasting eco-evolutionary responses of crops to global change

Robin ALLABY (University of Warwick, UK) 
How deep does the trajectory of domestication go in time? 

Elena BITOCCHI (Polytechnic University of Marche, Italy) 
The complex evolutionary history of the common bean

Amy BOGAARD (University of Oxford, Oxford, UK) 
Emerging questions about domestication in Europe

Daniel BRADLEY (Trinity College Dublin, Ireland)
What would Prince do?  Ancient ruminant genomes and the nature of animal domestication

Allowen EVIN (CNRS/Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution-Montpellier, France)
Long-term trajectories of phenotypic change under human control

Hélène FREVILLE (INRAE, Montpellier, France) 
Harnessing plant–plant interactions for the agroecological transition: agenetic perspective

Dorian FULLER (University College London, UK) 
Comparing domestication episodes: rates and extents of evolution across crop types, modes of selection, and cultural regions

Miriam GIFFORD (University of Warwick, UK) 
Timely nitrogen-fixing symbiosis: co-evolution of plant and rhizobia?

Tatiana GIRAUD (CNRS, University Paris Saclay, Paris, France) 
The domestication of molds for making cheese and dry-cured meat

Sylvain GLEMIN (CNRS, ECOBIO Rennes, France) 
Evolution of recombination during domestication

Greger LARSON (University of Oxford, Oxford, UK) 
What we talk about when we talk about domestication

Valérie LE CORRE (INRAE Agroecology, Dijon, France) 
Crop gene flow into related weeds as a source of new adaptations: the case of European weedy teosintes 

Christophe LEMAIRE (Sorbonne Université, Paris, France) 
The genomics of pestification

Kathryn LORD (University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, WorcesterMA, US) 
Domestication without the need for control, utility, intention or mutualism

Ruben MILLA (Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, Spain) 
Domesticated phenotypes investigated through experimental evolution and artificial selection

Fabio de OLIVEIRA FREITAS (Embrapa Recursos Genéticos e Biotecnologia, Brasília, Brezil)
Ethnobiology and Ethnoarchaeology of maize and manioc: Domestication, diversity, dispersal, and indigenous knowledge in South America

Morgane OLLIVIER (UMR 6566 CReAAH, University of Rennes, France) 
The origins of the dog: from domestication to adaptations shaped by cultural changes

Ludovic ORLANDO (Centre of Anthropobiology and Genomics of Toulouse, Toulouse, France)
The domestic horse: origins, dispersal, and selection through time

Katja POVEDA (Cornell University, Cornell, US) 
Domestication, diversity, and plant–insect interactions in a changing landscape

Jazmin RAMOS MADRIGAL (Globe Institute, University of Copenhagen, Denmark) 
Reconstructing maize selection history during domestication using ancient genomes

Guillaume RAMSTEIN (Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark) 
Learning from evolution to improve plant precision breeding

Jeff ROSS-IBARRA (University of California Davis, Davis, US) 
Human impacts on maize diversity over last 10K years

Maud TENAILLON (Génétique Quantitative et Evolution – Le Moulon, Saclay, France)
Domestication as a step toward reproductive isolation

Yves VIGOUROUX (IRD, Univ Montpellier, Montpellier, France) 
Legacy of somestication, lessons from the African domestication process

Deadline for application: May 5, 2027

Registration fee (including board and lodging)

• 570 € for PhD students 
• 790 € for other participants 

Application for registration 

The total number of participants is limited to 115 and all participants are expected to attend for the whole duration of the conference. Selection is made on the basis of the affinity of potential participants with the topics of the conference. Scientists and PhD Students interested in the meeting should deposit online before the deadline: 

• their curriculum vitae
• the proof of their student status
• the list of their main publications for the 3 last years
• the abstract of their presentation

The abstract must respect the following template:

• First line: title
• Second line: list of authors
• Third line: author's addresses
• Fourth line: e-mail of the presenting author

Abstract should not exceed 600 words. No figures.

After the deadline, the organizers will select the participants. Except in some particular cases approved by the Chairperson, it is recommended that all selected participants present their work during the conference, either in poster form or by a brief in- session talk. The organizers choose the form in which the presentations are made. No payment will be sent with application. Information on how and when to pay will be mailed in due time to those selected.