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Time, Date, Venue:- 10.15am-12.15pm; Monday 21stOctober; Hawthorn TD121

You will definitely know that viruses cause well-recognised diseases of humans (e.g.

AIDS, influenza), other animals (e.g. rabies) and plants. But recent studies have found

viruses to have more pervasive roles on earth and their niches and profusion are

astonishing.

This mini-symposium will introduce you to the marine environment where viruses

are by far the most abundant lifeforms and the reservoir of most of the genetic

diversity in the sea. Our first speaker, Curtis Suttle, estimated that if the 1030viruses

in the ocean were stretched end-to-end, they would extend further than the nearest 60

galaxies. Probing the marine virosphere is yielding exciting discoveries. Watch this

short movie to catch up on some of Curtis comments

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oi4B98u4hJ4).

Madeleine van Oppen(a Swinburne Visiting Researcher Scheme awardee) studies

iconic marine animals corals, which are host to a vast and diverse assemblage of

viruses. These have been hypothesised to cause disease and potentially coralbleaching; this as well as their likely beneficial or mutualistic role in the so-called

coral symbiome, is being explored in Madeleines ARC Future Fellowship research

program. She will describe all the elements of the coral symbiome, their roles andinteractions and give information on the latest results about coral associated viruses.

Our third speaker, Glenn Marshwill discuss unfolding Australian discoveries around

bats, their virome and virus transmission. Bats, an ancient group of flying mammals,

are being increasingly recognized as an important reservoir of zoonotic viruses of

different families, including SARS coronavirus, Nipah virus, Hendra virus and Ebola

virus. The premise that bats carry a large number of viruses is commonly accepted,

and viruses of livestock and humans could be derived from bat viruses. Do bats haveunique biological features making them ideal reservoir hosts? There are clear public

health implications of bat derived zoonotic viral disease outbreaks and well-defined

research directions are required to ensure better control of future disease events.

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Program (tea/coffee from 10.15-10.30 foyer adjacent to TD121)

Speaker Title Time

Associate Professor Karen

Farquharson, ADR Faculty of

Life & Social Sciences

Introduction 10.30-10.35

Professor Curtis Suttle,

University of British Colombia,

Vancouver, BC, Canada

Marine viruses major

players in the global

ecosystem

10.35-11.00

Dr Madeleine van Oppen,

Australian Institute of Marine

Science, Townsville, Queensland

Swinburne Visiting Researcher

2013

The coral holobiont and

the potential role of

viruses in coral ecology

and evolution

11.00-11.30

Dr Glenn Marsh

CSIRO Animal, Food and Health

Sciences,

Australian Animal Health

Laboratory, Geelong, VIC

Bats and their virome:

an important source of

emerging viruses

capable of infecting

humans

11.30-12.00

Professor Linda Blackall Panel Discussion 12.00-12.15

Background information on speakers:-Curtis Suttle http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oi4B98u4hJ4;

http://www.eos.ubc.ca/about/faculty/C.Suttle.html

Madeleine van Oppen

http://data.aims.gov.au/staffcv/jsf/external/view.xhtml?partyId=100000442;

http://scholar.google.com.au/citations?user=VTjKnHMAAAAJ&hl=en

See the coral symbiome that Madeleine studies (movie from her collaborator Ruth

Gates) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=al7SIGBVgWo

Glenn Marsh - http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Glenn_Marsh/and

http://www.csiro.au/places/aahl

Where Glenn works with Linfa Wang -

http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/2500895.htm