Genetics - Modules

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Junior Sophister - Third Year

• Molecular genetics I

This module will examine the principles and processes of regulation of gene expression, in prokaryotes and eukaryotes. It will be anchored around the problems that organisms have to solve in order to survive. These include modulating the cellular economy and maintaining homeostasis in response to dynamically changing internal and external states. This is crucial in microbes for adapting to environmental change and in multicellular organisms for coordinating cellular differentiation and development and regulating cellular, tissue-level and organismal physiology.

The module will cover mechanisms and principles of regulation of transcription, chromatin regulation, gene regulatory motifs and networks, mRNA splicing, mRNA turnover, translation, non-coding RNA functions, and protein folding and localisation.

• Molecular Genetics Laboratory

The module comprises a set of robust experiment-based projects in microbial and molecular genetics. The central theme is gene expression and its regulation. In the labs, students work in groups of two performing successive experiments in two or three different projects during each session.

The experiments provide invaluable hands-on experience of widely used experimental strategies and techniques in molecular genetics/molecular biology, which include: the isolation and purification of genomic and plasmid DNA; the polymerase chain reaction (PCR); the use of agarose and polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis in the analysis of DNA, RNA and proteins; genetic transformation of E. coli; gene cloning and analysis in plasmid vectors; lacZ, GUS and GFP reporter gene assays; transduction etc.

• Evolutionary and Population Genetics

This module provides an in-depth exploration of genetic variation, from its origins to its evolutionary consequences. The information in DNA is not always transmitted accurately from one generation to the next. DNA sequences can change spontaneously by the process of mutation and inaccurate DNA repair, resulting in genetic variation (polymorphism) within populations. Variable sites at different positions in the genome get shuffled into new combinations by the process of genetic recombination that occurs during sexual reproduction.

In this module, students will learn about the origin of genetic variation, its distribution within populations and long-term changes brought about by evolutionary processes.

For further information on course modules visit: www.tcd.ie/science/undergraduate/tr060-biological-and-biomedical-science/junior-sophister