Short Course Description
Bacteria and viruses are arguable the fastest evolving entities on earth. As such, it is possible to observe evolution in ?real-time? for both these entities, both in laboratory controlled studies, as well as in real life scenarios. In this course, we will survey a multitude of insights obtained into how evolution works, surveying both processes that are unique to microbes, as well as processes that are general and likely hold for other organisms as well. The course will involve reading material every week, covering some seminal publications from the following topics:
1. Historical survey of the field - long term evolution experiment, and ensuing studies
Basics of evolution
2. Mutation rates
3. Recombination and the conundrum of sex
4. Selective value of mutations - negative, positive, neutral?
5. Fitness landscapes
6. Phenotypic evolution
Advanced subjects
7. Red-queen and co-evolutionary arms-races
8. Evolution of sociality - cooperation, symbiosis, parasitism and multilevel selection
9. Evolutionary trade-offs
10. Origins of viruses and evolution of emerging viruses
11. Parallel/convergent evolution
12. Evo-devo and the evolution of gene regulatory networks
13. Predicting evolution?
Full syllabus is to be published
