TITLE OF THE COURSE: Population and Ecological Genetics

Course code: BIO3028

Course group: C

Faculty: Natural Science

Study program: Biology and Genetics

Level: Bachelor

Semester: Spring

ECTS credits: 5

Language of instruction English

Course lecturer/s: J.Radzijevskaja, L.Griciuvienė

The course explores the main ecological and evolutionary mechanisms that influence the genetic structure of populations. It covers the theory of natural selection, the basis of heredity and variation, population structure and genetics, and mechanisms of speciation, population size changes, migration and hybridization and other ecological processes. The first half of the course will deal with the impact of mutations, gene drift, gene flow and selection, on the genetic Short course description: structure of populations. Also, the main conception of range of molecular techniques, and the associated statistical tools available for identifying genetic variation within and among populations will be presented. The second half of course deals with populational genetics within ecological context. Lectures and practical works will provide a conceptual link between courses focused on genetics and molecular biology and courses focused on whole organisms and their ecology. 1.Introduction to population and ecological genetics. Population morphological, ecological and genetic characteristics. Phenotypic Variation in Natural Populations. 2.Genetic Variation in Natural Populations. Genetic variability. Course content: Genetic variability parameters: polymorphism, heterozygosity, allelic richness, effective number of alleles. Estimation of genetic variability. Genetic markers. 3.Estimation of genotype and allele frequencies. 4.Random Mating Populations: Hardy–Weinberg Principle .

Hardy–Weinberg proportions. Testing for Hardy–Weinberg proportions. 5.Nonrandom matting. Inbreeding. Inbreeding Depression. Pedigree analysis. Estimation of inbreeding coefficient F. 6.Mechanisms of evolutionary change: forces of Evolution. Mutation. 7.Mechanisms of evolutionary change: Genetic drift. Population bottleneck. Founder effect. 8. Effective population size. 9. Mechanisms of evolutionary change: Natural Selection. Fitness. Modes of natural selection. Heterozygous advantage (overdominance). Frequency-dependent selection. Heterosis. 10.Mechanisms of evolutionary change: Population subdivision. Quantifying population subdivision. Population differentiation. F-statistics. 11.Mechanisms of evolutionary change: Migration. Gene flow. Quantifying gene flow. 12.Four evolutional forces. The interaction among evolutionary forces. 13.Quantitative Genetics. Heritability. Quantitative trait loci (QTLs). 14.Applied Ecological Genetics I. 15.Applied Ecological Genetics II. Grading and evaluating student Mid-term exam - 20 %; practical work – 30 % and final work in class and/or at the final exam - 50 % of the total assessment. exam: 1.Conner J. K, Hartl D. L. A primer of ecological genetics, 2007. 2.F. W. Allendorf, G. H. Luikart, S. N. Aitken. Conservation Required reading and and the Genetics of Populations, 2nd Edition. 2012. additional study material 3. Graham B. Selection: the mechanism of evolution (2nd ed.), 2008. 4.Study material provided by lecturers.

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