…Courses - at the University of Idaho

Biol 504/404 Molecular Evolution
Prerequisites: Graduate standing or permission of instructor
3:30 - 4:20, MWF, TLC room 144

Description
This graduate course in Molecular Evolution will focus on a) understanding evolutionary processes acting at the molecular level and b) utilizing molecular patterns to reconstruct the evolutionary history of genes, genomes, populations, and species. We will discuss both theoretical and empirical approaches to the study of molecular evolution. We will first focus on the microevolutionary processes involved in shaping genetic variation. We then evaluate the macroevolutionary patterns generated by these processes by studying the variation and complexity of genomes. Throughout the course we will highlight current advances and controversies in the field and discuss practical applications to research of using molecular patterns to decipher the signature of evolutionary processes.