"Nothing in
biology makes sense except in the light of evolution" - Theodosius Dobzhansky.
The current deluge of biological sequences provides an impetus for studying evolution at its focal point. In this course we will examine the dynamics of evolutionary change at the level of the genome. A central theme will be the relative importance of the two driving forces in molecular evolution: neutral drift and natural selection. We will study how these two forces bear on the change in the genetic makeup of populations in terms of the neo-Darwinian theory and the neutral mutation hypothesis. Central concepts such as the magnitude of polymorphism within species and divergence among species, molecular clocks, and the various forms and units of selection will be examined. Comparative genomic techniques such as delineating orthologs/paralogs and reconstructing evolutionary trees will be taught. Special emphasis will be placed on exploring genome evolution by gene duplication, selfish DNA, and horizontal gene transfer among other topics. These topics will allow us to closely study the completely sequenced genomes of several model organisms such as Mus musculus, Drosophila melanogaster, Caenorhabditis elegans, and Arabidopsis thaliana, as well as examine our own genome in details.
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to the Genome Evolution Course.