Biologie générale et mécanismes de l'évolution

Chemistry of life; definition and origin of life; procaryote and eucaryote cell organisation; molecular basis of heredity; mitosis, meiosis, and sex; mutations; natural selection, fitness and adaptation; Mendelian genetics; genetics of sexual populations; quantitative genetics.

Neutral evolution and genetic drift; elements of population evolution; phylogenies and phylogenetic inference; gene genealogies; genes and genome evolution; mechanisms of speciation; intragenomic conflicts and unit of selection; evolution of development

Acquiring a basic knowledge of the biological sciences: cell organisation, structure and diversity of life. Understanding the basic mechanisms of biological evolution and its consequences on the diversification of life. Identifying hypotheses on past evolution that are compatible with a set of observations (data interpretation). From a set of observations, predict the future evolution of a gene, a genome, or a set of organisms, using the knowledge acquired on the evolutionary process.

Lectures, problems solving, case studies, computer data analyses.

References, bibliography, and recommended reading

1) "Biology" N.A. Campbell & J.B. Reece. de Boeck.

2) N.H. Barton, D.E.G. Briggs, J.A. Eisen, DB Goldstein, et N.H. Patel, 2007: Evolution, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press (ISBN: 0879696849)

Contacts

Patrick Mardulyn (Solbosch campus, U Building, Door C, 4th level, room 149b, pmarduly@ulb.ac.be)

Method(s) of evaluation

• written examination

written examination

Written exam

Mark calculation method (including weighting of intermediary marks)

100% for the written exam

Language(s) of evaluation

• french