BIO223 Evolutionary Biology

Topics covered through lectures, group work, and exercises:

• Theoretical modell for how the evolutinoary forces, selection, drift, gene flow and mutation, drive genetic changes in populations and species.
• How we can use genetic markers to study evolution of populations and species: genetic basis for local adaptations, adaptive evolution of protein coding genes, population divergence
• Life history strategies and fitness
• Speciation theory
• Genome evolution: size and content
• Evolution and developmental biology

Knowledge

• can describe basic theory on how genetic variation is shaped by the four evolutionary forces: mutation, selection, drift, and gene flow
• can describe how the evolutionary forces work together and result in biologic variation, including natural adaptation, both within and between species
• can describe how genetic data can be used to study evolutionary and ecological questions

Skills

• can use the above-mentioned theoretical knowledge to interpret genetic and/or other biological data in the context of evolutionary biology

General competence

• solid theoretical knowledge to do master-level courses within population genetics, molecular evolution, breeding, ecology, and nature management