Teaching code

4S00278

Teacher

Alfonso Esposito

Coordinator

Alfonso Esposito

Credits

6

Language

Italian

Scientific Disciplinary Sector (SSD)

BIO/18 - GENETICS

Period

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

Courses Single

Authorized

Lessons timetable Moodle Seminars 0

Learning objectives

The course provides knowledge on the organization of genetic material, transmission and recombina-tion 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 disea-ses, and the differences between genetically modified organisms and "natural" ones The students will acquire the basic concepts related to how to access structured information of ge-nomic 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 The students will be able to understand the genetic basis of life; to take advanced biotechnological and bioinformatics courses, also of a master's degree.

Prerequisites and basic notions

Knowledge of basic biology and basic statistics is required.

Program

FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF HEREDITY What genetics studies What are genes and what are alleles Classification of chromosomes based on the centromere Mitosis and its meaning in genetic terms Meiosis and its meaning in genetic terms Mendel's laws The test cross The Punnett square How to apply the Punnett square probability method or branching diagrams in dihybrid crosses The chi-square test Pedigree analysis SEX DETERMINATION AND SEX-INFLUENCED CHARACTERISTICS Haplodiploidy as a sex determination system The XX-X0 sex determination system Sex determination based on the environment The system of genetic balance for sex determination Sex determination in humans Effects of an alteration in the number of sex chromosomes in humans Gene dosage compensation The difference between sex-linked and sex-influenced characteristics EXTENSION AND VARIATION OF THE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF HEREDITY Penetrance and expressivity of a gene The reaction norm Differences between dominance, codominance and incomplete dominance Lethal alleles Multiple alleles and present an example Epistasis ASSOCIATION, RECOMBINATION AND MAPPING Linked genes Association of genes in CIS and in TRANS The frequency of recombination The 2-point and 3-point control cross Interference and coincidence coefficient in the association and recombination of genes Relationship between genetic maps and physical maps CHROMOSOMAL 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 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 compose it Types of repetitive sequences present in DNA What is meant by transcription The classes of RNA and their function The transcription unit Transcription in bacteria Transcription in eukaryotes Translation in bacteria mRNA processing Introns and RNA editing Evolution of the concept of gene The characteristics of the genetic code THE DNA OF ORGANELLES What are the DNAs contained in the various cellular organelles Mitochondrial DNA Chloroplastic DNA Homoplasmy and Heteroplasmy Maternal inheritance Point mutations: types and phenotypic effects Transition and transversion The forward mutation and its effects Reverse, suppressive, nonsense, missense, silent mutations. conditionals Mutation rate and mutation frequency The Ames test QUANTITATIVE GENETICS What are quantitative traits Polygenic and multifactorial traits The influence of the environment and genetic factors on the variability of quantitative traits Assumptions for the Nilsson-Ehle multigenic hypothesis Determination of the number of genes responsible for a polygenic trait Phenotypic variance and its components Genetic variance and its components Broad sense and narrow sense heritability How to calculate broad sense heritability by eliminating components of variance 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 Inbreeding depression and heterosis Factors that can disturb the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium in a population and their consequences Balanced polymorphism Drift and genetics EVOLUTIONARY GENETICS Biological evolution The forces of evolution Types of evolution Biological species, Morphospecies and Phylogenetic species Prezygotic reproductive isolation mechanisms Postzygotic reproductive isolation mechanisms Speciation Allopatric speciation and reinforcement Sympatric speciation Phylogeny TUMOR GENETICS Cancer Clonal evolution of tumors Genetic evidence of carcinogenesis Oncogenes and tumor suppressors EPIGENETICS What is epigenetics GENETIC DISEASES Genetic diseases How hereditary diseases are classified Multifactorial genetic diseases GMOs What are GMOs

Bibliography

Didactic methods

Frontal lessons, with slides available on Moodle. The files are updated with each lesson.

Learning assessment procedures

Written, multiple choice and/or open quizzes

Evaluation criteria

Overall preparation level assessed on the basis of generic open questions or quizzes

Criteria for the composition of the final grade

Open questions valued at 3 points each and/or quizzes valued at 1 point each

Exam language

Italiano