Spring 2023 Biology GR6580 section 001

Readings in Evolutionary Genomics

Readings Evolutionary Gen

Call Number 14211
Day & Time
Location
T 2:10pm-4:00pm
800 Sherman Fairchild Life Sciences Building
Points 3
Grading Mode Standard
Approvals Required None
Instructors Peter Andolfatto
Guy Sella - e-mail
Type SEMINAR
Method of Instruction In-Person
Course Description

The course covers a range of current topics in evolutionary and quantitative genetics, with two main aims: 1) to expose students to important, open questions in the field and 2) to help them learn how to read research papers carefully and critically. This year we will focus on the genetic basis of adaptation. Adaptation is the dynamic evolutionary process by which an organism’s fitness increases in a particular environment via changes in the frequencies of alleles contributing to heritable phenotypic trait variation. Recent evidence from human genetics, and past evidence in quantitative genetics in a variety of organisms, indicate the heritable variation in many traits is highly polygenic, suggesting that when selection pressures change, adaptation should be highly polygenic as well. At the same time, there appear to be many examples in which adaptation occured by large effect changes in few genes. We will review the theory and evidence, with the goal of understanding when we should expect adaptation to proceed by these different modes.  

Web Site Vergil
Department Biological Sciences
Enrollment 13 students (25 max) as of 10:06AM Thursday, March 28, 2024
Subject Biology
Number GR6580
Section 001
Division Interfaculty
Campus Morningside
Section key 20231BIOL6580G001