Evolutionary and Developmental Biology - विकास एवं परिवर्धन जीव विज्ञान

Program Class: Degree / B.Sc

Year: Thierd

Semester: Sixth

Subject: ZOOLOGY

Course Title: Evolutionary and Developmental Biology

Course Learning Outcomes:

On completion of this course, learners will be able to:

·       Understand that by biological evolution we mean that many of the organisms that inhabit the earth today are different from those that inhabited it in the past.

·       Understand that natural selection is one of several processes that can bring about evolution, although it can also promote stability rather than change.

·       Understand how the single cell formed at fertilisation forms an embryo and then a full adult organism.

·       Integrate genetics, molecular biology, biochemistry, cell biology, anatomy and physiology during embryonic development.

·       Understand a variety of interacting processes, which generate an organism’s heterogeneous shapes, size, and structural features.

·       Understand how a cell behaves in response to an autonomous determinant or an external signal, and the scientific reasoning exhibited in experimental life science

Credits: 4

Core Compulsory

Max. Marks: –25+75

Min. Passing Marks: 33

Unit

Topics

I

Theories of Evolution

·       Origin of Life

·       Historical review of evolutionary concept: Lamarckism, Darwinism (Natural, Sexual and Artifical selection)

·       Modern synthetic theory of evolution

·       Patterns of evolution (Divergence, Convergence, Parallel, Coevolution)

II

Population Genetics

·       Microevolution and Macroevolution: allele frequencies, genotype frequencies, Hardy- Weinberg equilibrium and conditions for its maintenance

·       Forces of evolution: mutation, selection, genetic drift

III

Direct Evidences of Evolution

·       Types of fossils, Incompleteness of fossil record, Dating of fossils, Phylogeny of horse

IV

Species Concept and Extinction

·       Biological species concept (Advantages and Limitations); Modes of speciation (Allopatric, Sympatric)

·       Mass extinction (Causes, Names of five major extinctions

V

Gamete Fertilization and Early Development

·       Gametogenesis, Fertilization

·       Cleavage pattern

·       Gastrulation, fate maps

·       Morphogenesis

VI

Developmental Genes

·       General concepts of organogenesis

·       Introduction to genetic basis of embryonic development

·       Developmental control genes (Homeobox genes)

VII

Early Vertebrate Development

·       Early development of vertebrates (fish, birds & mammals)

·       Metamorphosis, regeneration

·       Environmental regulation of development

VIII

Late Developmental Processes

·       Development of eye, kidney, limb in amphibian

·       Mammalian female reproductive cycles estrous cycle and menstruation

·       Aging: the biology of senescence