| Course ID: | GENE 8420. 3 hours. |
| Course Title: | Molecular Ecology |
Course
Description: | Introduction to diversity statistics and how ecological
questions are addressed through patterns of genetic diversity.
Focus on how genetic data can reflect demographic processes.
The goal of this course is an integrative overview of how field
and genetic studies complement each other for describing the
distribution and abundance of organisms. |
| Oasis Title: | Molecular Ecology |
| Prerequisite: | GENE 3000-3000D or ECOL 4500/6500 or permission of department |
Semester Course
Offered: | Offered spring semester every even-numbered year. |
| Grading System: | A-F (Traditional) |
|
| Course Objectives: | Students successfully completing this course will learn how to
evaluate coalescent hypotheses, set up basic simulations and
analyses, and will understand how genetic data can, and cannot,
be used to describe the demographic history of populations.
The application of such analyses to conservation, biogeography,
and ecology will be discussed. The successful student will also
learn to explore multilocus or genomic data sets for outliers
from the prevailing demographic history to identify genes that
may be adaptive.
Students will read papers from the primary scientific literature
and be prepared to present the methods and conclusions of those
papers orally to the class. |
| Topical Outline: | 1. Diversity statistics
2. Variance in reproductive success and effective size
3. Coalescent theory
4. Gene trees
5. Phylogeography
6. Neutrality
7. Conservation and climate change
8. Hypothesis testing
Readings: Molecular Ecology, Foundations in Ecology (Real and
Brown), Coalescent Theory (Wakeley), current literature
This course syllabus is a general plan for the course;
deviations announced to the class by the instructor may be
necessary.
|