Subsections
[Cr:3, Lc:2, Tt:1, Lb:0]
- Transmission genetics of families: Mendel's laws, Mendelian mutants,
monohybrid and dihybrid crosses, epistasis, pleiotropy and penetrance,
recombination and genetic linkage. Recombination frequency. Genetic
mapping.
- Natural selection: Basic idea of selection as “differential heritable
reproductive success”. Life-history as the timing of reproductive
output and its central role in mediating selection. Field examples:
The beaks of Darwin's finches. Peppered moths and industrial melanism.
Laboratory examples: Evolution of lifespan/developmental rates in
Drosophila, evolution of antibiotic resistance.
- Transmission genetics of populations: Gene variation as the raw
material of evolution. Mutations. types of mutations. Genetic
characterization of populations: genotype and allele frequencies. The
Hardy-Weinberg Principle. Linkage disequilibrium. Agents of
evolutionary change: One-locus two-allele models of selection, genetic
drift, mutation, migration and inbreeding.
- Quantitative Genetics: Metric traits or continuous traits.
Partitioning of phenotypic variance. Breeding value. Additive
variation. Heritability. Artifical selection. Trade-offs.
Quantititative Trait loci.
- The origin of species: Species concepts. Reproductive isolation.
Allopatric and sympatric speciation. The geography of speciation.
- Systematics and Phylogeny: How we classify organisms. The taxonomic
hierarchy. Convergent and divergent evolution. Evolutonary
classifications and phylogeny. The molecular signatures of evolution.
The molecular clock hypothesis.
- D. Sadava, W. K. Purves, G. H. Orians, and H. C. Heller, Life:
the science of biology, 8th Edn., Sinauer Assoc. & Freeman & Co.
(2008).
- N. A. Campbell, J. B. Reece, R. B. Jackson, M. L. Cain, L. A. Urry, S.
A. Wasserman, P. V. Minorsky, Biology, 8th Edn.
Benjamin-Cummings Pub Co. (2007).
