Why assemble a consortium?

Until recently, an enormous effort was needed to apply genetic tools to ecological studies, especially when striving to uncover the mechanisms of phenotypic plasticity and the genetic basis for evolutionary adaptation. An important consequence of the large-scale genome programs of recent years has been the technological advancements that transform such studies from the painstaking hunt for a few accessible genes to the rapid screening of multiple loci for variation linked to specific phenotypic effects. As a consequence, genomic resources targeting an ecologically-focused organism are being developed by the DGC, whose goal is "to develop the Daphnia system to the same depth of molecular, cell and developmental biological understanding as other model systems, but with the added advantage of being able to interpret observations in the context of natural ecological challenges."

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