Teaching code

4S00278

Teacher

Massimo Delledonne

Coordinator

Massimo Delledonne

Credits

6

Also offered in courses:

• Genetics of the course Bachelor's degree in Applied Mathematics

Language

Italian

Scientific Disciplinary Sector (SSD)

BIO/18 - GENETICS

Period

Semester 1  dal Oct 1, 2024 al Jan 31, 2025.

Courses Single

Authorized with reserve

Lessons timetable Moodle Seminars 0

Learning objectives

The course provides knowledge on the organization of genetic material, transmission and recombination of hereditary characteristics, the aberrations of chromosomes and genes, the dynamics of genes in populations. It also introduces genetic evidence of carcinogenesis and a number of major diseases, and the differences between genetically modified organisms and "natural" ones Knowledge and understanding: Students will acquire the basic concepts related to how to access structured information of genomic and biological type, and methods for their processing and communication; the models and biomolecular technologies of fundamental use, and foundations of the genetics of animal and plant organisms Ability to apply knowledge and understanding: Students will be able to understand the genetic basis of life; to take ad-vanced biotechnological and bioinformatics courses, also of a master's degree.

Prerequisites and basic notions

A basic knowledge of statistic is required

Program

FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF INHERITANCE
What genetics studies
Genes and alleles
Chromosome classification based on the centromere
Mitosis and its meaning in genetic terms
Meiosis and its meaning in genetic terms
Mendel's laws
The testcross
The Punnett quarter
How to apply the Punnett square probability method or branch diagrams in dihybrid crossings
The chi-square test
Pedigree analysis
DETERMINATION OF SEX AND SEX-INFLUENCED CHARACTERS
Haplodiploidy as a sex determination system
The XX-X0 sex determination system
The determination of sex based on the environment
The system of gene balance for the determination of sex
The determination of sex in man
Effects of an alteration in the number of sex chromosomes in humans
Compensation of gene dosage
The difference between sex-linked and sex-influenced characters
EXTENSION AND VARIATION OF THE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF INHERITANCE
Penetrance and expressiveness of a gene
The norm of reaction
Differences between dominance, codominance and incomplete dominance
The lethal alleles
Multiple alleles and present an example
The epistasis
ASSOCIATION, RECOMBINATION AND MAPPING
Linked genes
Association of genes in CIS and TRANS
The frequency of recombination
The 2-point and 3-point mapping
Interference and coefficient of coincidence in the association and recombination of genes
Relationship between genetic maps and physical maps
CHROMOSOMIC VARIABILITY
The karyotype
Chromosomal rearrangements
Types of aneuploidy and related possible phenotypic consequences
Uniparental disomy
Mosaicism
Types of euploidy and related possible genetic and phenotypic consequences
BACTERIAL AND VIRAL GENETIC SYSTEMS
Bacterial conjugation
The bacterial transformation
Generalized transduction and specialized transduction
Retroviruses
DNA + TRANSCRIPTION + PROCESSING
The characteristics of bacterial chromosomes
The characteristics of eukaryotic chromosomes
The CoT curve and what are the factors that make it up
Types of repetitive sequences present in DNA
What is meant by transcription
The classes of ANN and their function
The transcription unit
Transcription in bacteria
Transcription in eukaryotes
Translation in bacteria
The processing of mRNA
Introns and RNA editing
Evolution of the concept of gene
The characteristics of the genetic code
THE DNA OF THE ORGANELS
What are the DNAs contained in the various cell organelles
Mitochondrial DNA
Chloroplastic DNA
Homoplasmy and Heteroplasmy
The maternal inheritance
Point mutations: types and phenotypic effects
Transition and transversion
The forward mutation and its effects
Reverse mutations, suppressive, nonsense, missense, silent. conditionals
Mutation rate and mutation frequency
The Ames test
QUANTITATIVE GENETICS
What are quantitative characters
Polygenic and multifactorial characters
The influence of the environment and genetic factors on the variability of quantitative characters
Assumptions for the Nilsson-Ehle multigenic hypothesis
Determination of the number of genes responsible for a polygenic character
The phenotypic variance and its components
The genetic variance and its components
Heritability in a broad and narrow sense
How heritability in a broad sense is calculated by eliminating variance components and its problems
The limitations of heritability
POPULATION GENETICS
Species, evolution and phylogeny
Natural and artificial selection
The response to selection, its limits and how it is calculated
Realized heritability
Mendelian populations and gene pool
Estimation of genotype frequencies in a population
Estimation of allele frequencies in a population
The Hardy-Weinberg law
Incrossing depression and heterosis
The factors that can disturb the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium in a population and their consequences
The balanced polymorphism
The drift and genetics
EVOLUTIONARY GENETICS
Biological evolution
The forces of evolution
Types of evolution
Biological Species, Morphospecies and Phylogenetic Species
The mechanisms of prezygotic reproductive isolation
The mechanisms of postzygotic reproductive isolation
Speciation
Allopatric speciation and reinforcement
Sympatric speciation
Phylogeny
THE GENETICS OF CANCER
The cancer
Clonal evolution of tumors
The genetic evidence of carcinogenesis
Oncogenes and tumor suppressors
THE EPIGENETICS
What is epigenetics
GENETIC DISEASES
Genetic diseases
Recommended text books and slides of the course are available on Moodle

Bibliography

Didactic methods

Slides and articles both available on Moodle. The files are updated (a new version every year) during the course.

Learning assessment procedures

Written, open questions or quiz

Evaluation criteria

Global level of knowledge assessed by evaluating open questions or quiz

Criteria for the composition of the final grade

10 open questions evaluated 3 points each, or 33 quiz evaluated 1 point each

Exam language

italiano