The overall flow of the class is as follows:

Micropopbio Central Questions:

1. True or False: “Everything is everywhere; the environment selects.”
2. What is a microbial species and why might they exist?
3. How important is horizontal gene transfer (HGT) in microbial evolution?
4. How do we construct the best models of evolutionary relationships among organisms?
5. What are the effects of chance, history, and adaptation on microbial evolution?
6. How do bacteria elude the “competitive exclusion principle” and shape their own niches?
7. In a given environment, how does immigration affect microbial diversity and diversification?
8. What are the consequences of adaptation to a constant environment?
9. Is the mutation rate minimal or optimal?
10. Why sex?
11. Why cooperate? Why cheat?
12. Why are some pathogens so virulent, and others so mild?
13. What are the optimal life-history strategies for pathogens under various transmission regimes?
14. What happens when the life history of a symbiont (parasites or commensals) becomes increasingly dependent on a host organism?
15. What fraction of human microbial commensals is stuck with us, and what fraction is just hitching a ride?
16. How stable is the structure of microbial communities, in general?
17. What rules govern the assemblage of microbial communities, and are they the same as for macroscopic eukaryotes?
18. How many prokaryotic species are there really out there?

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The order of our focal readings is roughly as follows:1. Whitaker et al Archaea biogeography

2. Horner-Devine et al, Nature 2004, bacteria TA curve.

3. Hughes Martiny et al Nat Rev Micro

4. Tringe et al Science 2006, comparative metagenomics:

5. Cohan species concept Annual Review

6. more to come…stay tuned to the blog…

5.