The University of Arizona

ECOL/MCB/BIOC 453/553
EVOLUTIONARY & FUNCTIONAL
GENOMICS
 

FALL 2006

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Overview:

Genetics, and the biological sciences in general, are being transformed by massive infusion of sequence data together with new computational and database capabilities. Central to this transformation are the determination of complete genome sequences and the exploitation of these sequences to answer biological questions. This exploitation involves integration of the new sequence information with established methods and information in genetics. Because much of genomics depends on comparative sequence analysis, an understanding of evolutionary processes is essential.

This course surveys the basic findings and approaches in the developing field of genomics. We cover conceptual aspects as well as methodology and technical advances that are central to obtaining and exploring genome sequences. A consideration of how the evolutionary process shapes genomes will be a continuing theme in the course. This course is one part of a graduate training program in Evolutionary and Functional Genomics, funded by the National Science Foundation (UA IGERT program).

Organization:

The course consists of a lecture/reading portion and a hands-on computational portion. Lectures are complemented by readings from a textbooks and the primary scientific literature. In the computational portion, basic tools for exploiting genomic sequence databases are introduced and put into use by students.