| Instructor: Craig
Sargent, csargent@uky.edu,
Rooms 115-116 MDR3, 859-257-8742
Office Hours: Tuesdays &
Thursdays, 2-3pm, or by appointment.
Meeting Time: Wednesdays, 1-3pm,
Kuehne Conference Room (an alternative time may be arranged at our
first class meeting, depending on the needs of those enrolled)
Course Description: Evolutionary
biologists have long been interested in the phenomenon of major
evolutionary change, macroevolution, in terms of increased complexity,
new structures and body plans, and new lineages. Recent technological advances in
genomics and bioinformatics allow us to study the developmental
and genetic bases of macroevolution. We will explore
how macroevolutionary hypotheses are tested through a
variety of approaches from the fields of applied
mathematics, computer science, geology, and biology (genetics,
development, population biology, ecology). For the
first half of the semester, the format will be lecture by the
instructor for the first hour, followed by group discussion for
the second hour. The second half of the
semester will be devoted to presentation and discussion of student
projects.
List of Topics:
-
Definitions of
Macroevolution
-
Historical Geology and the
Fossil Record
-
Phylogenetic Reconstruction
and Phylogenetic Inference
-
Origins of New Genes: Gene
Duplication (Michael Lynch: pub,
lab),
Exon Shuffling (Manyuan Long: pub,
lab)
-
EvoDevo - Insights from
Developmental Genetics: e.g. Arthropod Segmentation (Nipam
Patel: pub,
lab),
Amphibian Metamorphosis (Randal Voss: pub,
lab), Fins to Limbs (Günter
Wagner: pub,
lab)
-
Evolution of Adaptive
Radiations: e.g. The
Hawaiian Silverswords, Threespine
Sticklebacks
-
Evolution of Complex
Structures: e.g. The
Eye
-
What do we know about the
Cambrian Explosion?
-
Evolution of Information
(Tom Schneider: pub,
lab) and
Complexity (Chris Adami: pub,
lab)
-
Practical Applications:
Computer Science and Evolutionary Algorithms (John Holland: pub,
bio;
GA Archives);
Biotechnology - Directed Enzyme Evolution (Frances Arnold: lab)
-
Compensatory
Evolution (an example of microevolution of
"irreducible complexity")
Projects: Each student will select a
topic in consultation with the instructor, for more in-depth
investigation. Ideally, a project's topic will be of particular
interest to the student choosing it, and would strengthen her/his
individual research program toward a dissertation. A topic should
be broadly on the phenomenon of macroevolution, within the context
of the evolutionary concepts covered in this course. A project may
focus on a particular taxonomic group (e.g. the rift lake cichlids
of Africa, the Hawaiian Silverswords), or on a particular
evolutionary process (e.g. the genetics of speciation, gene
duplication theory, evolution
of gene networks). Each student will present her/his project to
the class in a presentation lasting approximately one hour,
sometime during the second half of the semester. In addition, each student will submit her/his project
either as a term paper, or as a
web based essay, complete with links to references to the primary
literature, and links to the websites of the experts who are
cited.
Grading: Grading is based on class
participation (20%) and the student project (80%), which includes
an in class presentation, and an essay for the web.
Selected Readings: we will discuss
several chapters from the following books, and a lot of papers
from the primary literature that will be posted later.
Internet Resources: Access
to Journals, Search Engines
Grenier, J. K., T. L.
Garber, R. Warren, P. M. Whitington, and S. Carroll, 1997 Evolution
of the entire arthropod Hox gene set predated the origin and
radiation of the onychophoran/arthropod clade. Curr. Biol.
7:547-553
Ohno, S 1996. The
notion of the Cambrian pananimalia genome. PNAS, Vol. 93,
Issue 16, 8475-8478, August 6, 1996.
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