Course title:   Genes and Genomes

 The bacterial world

The discovery and place of bacteria in tree of life – from early approaches to molecular methods, molecular chronometers, protein-coding genes, how protein-coding genes change, hierarchies in protein sequence organisation

Quantifying gene sequence change

Sequence alignments and their meaning, from alignments and simple models of sequence evolution to evolutionary distances, building phylogenies

Genome organisation

Gene content in bacterial and eukaryotic genomes, c-value paradox, the cost of gene, minimal gene complements for cellular life

Genome evolution

Genome growth and shrinkage, horizontal gene transfer and duplication, costs and benefits of gene acquisition


Course Outcomes

After completing this course, the student will be able to:

CO1

Understand the structure and organisation of bacterial genes, and how they change over time

CO2

Understand how genes and other elements are put together to create genomes in bacteria and higher eukaryotes

CO3

Understand the different ways in which minimal gene complements are put together in bacteria

CO4

Understand the processes that drive genome expansion and contraction in bacteria, with some basic comparisons with equivalents in eukaryotes



Instructors: Aswin Sai Narain Seshasayee

Schedule: Tuesdays and Thursdays  9-10 AM

Venue: SAFEDA