Course Overview

This course will focus on how molecular evolution of the genome and evolution of the morphology are related. After learned about several kinds of molecular evolutionary processes, students will learn how the genome construct the 3D morphology during embryogenesis. Combining what they learned about molecular evolution and developmental biology, students will learn several topics where the morphological evolution is linked with the molecular evolution of genome.

Learning Achievement

Understand the basic process of molecular evolution
Understand the basic process of how gene activity regulate morphogenesis
Understand the link between molecular evolution and phenotype evolution

Competence

Course prerequisites

Grading Philosophy

Attendance and contribution to the class discussion (30%)
Essay (70%)

Course schedule

Basic process of molecular evolution
Evolution of new genes:
Gene duplication, genome duplication, domain shuffling and de novo evolution
Genetic regulation of morphogenesis 1
Genetic regulation of morphogenesis 2
Evolutionary conservation of genetic materials for morphogenesis (the idea of toolkit)
Trace evolutionary origin of novel characters from comparative development
How to make different morphology by using conserved toolkit genes
Evolutionary dynamics of enhancers 1
Evolutionary dynamics of enhancers 2
Human evolution and molecular evolution

Course type

Lectures

Online Course Requirement

Instructor

Wada Hiroshi

Other information

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