Adaptation and evolution in the Antarctic: an exciting challenge for biology

The study of evolutionary history and biology of the unique Antarctic biota is steadily gaining momentum. Research on fish evolution has recently been addressed to antifreeze compounds in Antarctic and Arctic fish, globin genes and loss of expression in icefish, hemoglobin, systematics of Notothenioidei. Coordination within a well-conceived international, multi-disciplinary and integrated programme is useful and appropriate. Such framework is provided by the science plan of "Evolution in the Antarctic" (EVOLANTA), an international and multi-disciplinary SCAR programme, which, acting in synergy with other Antarctic programmes, links research on evolution in response to climate change, coordinating investigations on the Antarctic marine, terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems. Studying adaptation and evolution of Antarctic organisms is a difficult task, and this challenge will keep Antarctic biologists busy in the next decades.