Basic Structure
- Blogging and discussion of readings (40% ), reports of lab on your blog
- Two exams (30%)
- Research paper (30%)
- General Participation (max 10% extra credit)
This course is writing intensive.
General Subjects
The overall flow of the class is as follows:
Micropopbio Central Questions:
- True or False: “Everything is everywhere; the environment selects.”
- What is a microbial species and why might they exist?
- How important is horizontal gene transfer (HGT) in microbial evolution?
- How do we construct the best models of evolutionary relationships among organisms?
- What are the effects of chance, history, and adaptation on microbial evolution?
- How do bacteria elude the “competitive exclusion principle” and shape their own niches?
- In a given environment, how does immigration affect microbial diversity and diversification?
- What are the consequences of adaptation to a constant environment?
- Is the mutation rate minimal or optimal?
- Why sex?
- Why cooperate? Why cheat?
- Why are some pathogens so virulent, and others so mild?
- What are the optimal life-history strategies for pathogens under various transmission regimes?
- What happens when the life history of a symbiont (parasites or commensals) becomes increasingly dependent on a host organism?
- What fraction of human microbial commensals is stuck with us, and what fraction is just hitching a ride?
- What differentiates probiotics from pathogens?
- How stable is the structure of microbial communities, in general?
- What rules govern the assemblage of microbial communities, and are they the same as for macroscopic eukaryotes?’
- How many prokaryotic species are there really out there?
Course schedule
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