Mechanisms of evolution I 1400-217ME1

Mechanisms of evolution on the level of sequences, genes, and genomes.
• theoretical basis of evolution in information theoryi;
• elements of population genetics - allele changes due to selection and drift, neutral evolution;
• origins and early stages of evolution of genetic information - from the first replicators to the cells;
• evolution of nucleotide and peptide sequences, substitution models, rate of evolutionary change, neutral molecular evolution and the molecular clock;
• origin of the eukaryotic cells, the endosymbiotic theory;
• genome evolution - duplication of genes and genomes, evolution of gene families, horizontal gene transfer, co-evolution of the nuclear and organellar genomes;
• phylogenetics and phylogenomics - principles and applications;
• fundamentals of evolution and development - allometry, evolution of body plans, deep homology;
• evolution of developmental control in plants and animals;
• evolution of complexity - mathematical models and empirical data, origin of evolutionary novelties - cooptation and functional change, the limits of complexity;