LIFS 680: Genetics and Evolution
Course Syllabus

Course Materials login http://blackboard.indstate.edu/

Dr. Gary Stuart
Rm S231, x-7898
gstuart@indstate.edu
http://mama.indstate.edu/users/stuart

General Format:

Essential design of the course is that of a "directed journal club".
Course participants present current research of interest to them, but also dealing primarily with Genes and Evolution.
A list of potential general topics is provided below.
Depending on class size, each participant is generally responsible for 2 presentations.

Potential Topics:

        Prebiotic Evolution
                Autopoeises
                Protometabolism
                Ribozymes and the RNA world
                Molecular Fossils

        Genomics and Genome Evolution
                Exon Shuffling
                Intron Origins
                Polymerases and Reverse Transcriptases
                Virus Evolution
                Retroposition and Transposition
                Repetitive Sequences
                Plastid Genomes
                Horizontal Gene Transfer
                Sex Determination
                Telomeres and Centromeres

        Population Genetics
                Mutation/Fixation
                Genetic Diversity
                Biogeography
                Speciation

        Molecular Phylogeny
                Eukaryotic/Prokaryotic Relationships
                Metazoan Relationships
                Origins of Chloroplast and Mitochodria
                Endosymbiosis

(many others)

Presentation Ground Rules:

Presentation will focus on a primary reference, and possibly an additional short review paper.
A major point of the primary reference: some evolutionary aspect of molecules, genes, genomes, or inheritance
Each presenter is solely responsible for their seminar date.
Any change in responsibility must be mutually agreed upon by all parties.
All changes should occur at least one week prior to the seminars affected.
Your abstract (doc) and primary reference (pdf) must be delivered to the digital dropbox one week in advance (before class).
I can help you distribute copies to class members if you need help.
The primary reference should be as recent as possible (2008 or later)
Literature Searches: Medline (ML), ProQuest, etc.

Grading:

Suggestions:

Articles from the high impact journals are a good bet (Science, Nature, Cell, etc., see list below) Articles from other journals are frequently harder to present (more detailed, but less significant, ambiguous conclusions).

Reading only the primary reference is not sufficient to prepare a seminar! You should become thoroughly familiar with your topic by reading many references.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?db=pubmed&cmd=search&term= (to access PubMed)

Obviously, one must begin preliminary searches/preparation for the seminar so that one can chose the primary reference one week in advance. This is especially important when interlibrary loan must be used to obtain a primary or background reference. Our library does not carry Molecular Evolution , Molecular Biology and Evolution, Genomics, and several others. It does carry the Journal of Molecular Evolution, and Current Opinion in Genetics and Development, a review journal in which one yearly issue is devoted to Genomes & Evolution. Other useful reviews can be found in Trends in Genetics and Trends in Evolution and Ecology. It is also helpful to cite one or two general references (typically a review paper) to the subject that you will use to prepare your seminar. A good way to communicate these (and other relevant papers) to the class is to list them below the abstract. If the general reference is short, it could easily be included as one of two primary references. It is important not to remove any relevant references from the Science Library prior to the seminar so that all may have access.

High Impact Journal List:

Top 20 Journals focused on Molecular and Cellular Biology (http://www.eigenfactor.org)

1. JOURNAL OF BIOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY

2. CELL

3. JOURNAL OF IMMUNOLOGY

4. BLOOD

5. CANCER RESEARCH

6. MOLECULAR AND CELLULAR BIOLOGY

7. EMBO JOURNAL

8. NUCLEIC ACIDS RESEARCH

9. BIOCHEMISTRY

10. MOLECULAR CELL

11. JOURNAL OF CELL BIOLOGY

12. NATURE GENETICS

13. GENES & DEVELOPMENT

14. JOURNAL OF VIROLOGY

15. JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL MEDICINE

16. JOURNAL OF CLINICAL INVESTIGATION

17. ONCOGENE

18. CURRENT BIOLOGY

19. JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR BIOLOGY

20. NATURE MEDICINE

Top 20 Journals for all Sciences (with biology content, but not on previous list).

1. NATURE

2. SCIENCE

4. PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AME

9. NEW ENGLAND JOURNAL OF MEDICINE

12. CIRCULATION

14. JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE

15. LANCET

18. JAMA-JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION