78783 - Biodiversity and Evolution

Learning outcomes

The course traces the history of three and a half billion years of life on Earth, with particular attention to the evolution of primary producers. The aim of the course is to provide useful tools for understanding the evolutionary dynamics of living organisms and their biodiversity.

Course contents

Microevolution. Sources of genetic variability. Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. 

The concept of species. Interspecific hybrids (genomic imprinting: outline). Reproductive isolation: pre and post-zygotic barriers. Allopatric and sympatric speciation. Sympatric speciation by auto- and allopolyploidy. Evolutionary history of wheat (Triticeae tribe).

History of life. Origin of life (outline). Anoxygenic photosynthesis. Oxygenic photosynthesis and atmospheric oxygen. Autotrophy and heterotrophy. First eukaryotes and endosymbiosis. Mass extinctions.

Phylogenesis. Taxa. Molecular and morphological homology. Morphological analogies, convergent evolution and homoplasy. Monophyletic (clade), paraphyletic and polyphyletic groups.

Prokaryotes. Cell wall, endospores, rapid evolution, nutritional and metabolic adaptations. Archea. Bacteria. Cyanobacteria. Agrobacterium tumefaciens, trans- and cis-genic plants.

Protists. Secondary endosymbiosis. Escavata: Euglena. SAR: Stramenopiles (Diatoms: monogenic diploid cycle; Brown algae: digenetic aplo-diploid cycle); Alveolates (Dinoflagellates: Apicomplexa: Plasmodium falciparum, malaria). Archaeplastida: Green algae. Chlamydomonas reinhardtii: monogenetic haploid cycle. Use of microalgae for the production of biofuels and bioenergy (outline).

Fungi. Decomposers, parasites, symbionts. Chitin. Sexual and asexual reproduction. Plasmogamy, heterocariotic stage. Glomeromycetes (arbuscular mycorrhizae). Ascomycetes (Neurospora crassa: biological cycle; Saccharomyces cerevisiae: heterotrophic metabolism (aerobic and anaerobic, fermentation). Basidiomycetes: biological cycle. Use of ligno-cellulosic material for the production of biofuels. Pathogenic fungi and biotechnology (e.g. Fusarium and Bt maize).

Elements of animal evolution. General characteristics of animals (nutrition, cellular structure, embryogenesis). Radial and bilateral symmetry. Diblastic and triblastic animals. Coelom. Deuterostomes and protostomes. Plant-insect coevolution.

Plants. Colonization of land. Non-vascular plants: mosses (bryophytes): biological cycle. Vascular plants without seeds: licophytes, monilophytes: biological cycle; lignin. Carboniferous: accumulation of atmospheric oxygen and formation of fossil coal. Plants with seeds (spermatophytes) without flowers (gymnosperms): ovule and seed. Conifers. Plants with seeds (spermatophytes) with flowers (angiosperms): flower and fruit. Mega and microgametogenesis. Aplo-diploid cycle and double fertilization. Food security in the 21st century (outline).

Elements of plant cytology. Turgor pressure in plant cells. The vacuole. The cell wall. Cellulose biosynthesis. Cell division. Lignin. Plasmodesmata. Apoplasto and simplasto. General characteristics of plastids.

Photosynthesis. Oxygenic photosynthesis. Light as a source of energy. Photosynthetic pigments and light absorption. Chloroplasts. Light and metabolic phase. Structure and function of photosystems. Linear electron transport from water to NADP+ and chemiosmotic synthesis of ATP. Calvin-Benson cycle for carbon organication. Photorespiration and CO2 concentration in C4 plants (outline).

Elements of anatomy, growth and development. Organs, tissue systems and cell types. Development of a herbaceous dicotyledonous plant. Flowering. Secondary growth.

Structure and function of plants, an integrated vision. Root absorption of water, xyleme transport and transpiration. Absorption of nutrients. Phloem and source-sink relationships. Photosynthesis-transpiration tradeoff.

Readings/Bibliography

Sadava et al.,“Biologia – l'evoluzione e la biodiversità”. Terza edizione italiana. Zanichelli 2014

Reece et al., “Campbell. La forme e la funzione nelle piante”. Pearson Italia 2015

Reece et al., “Campbell. Meccanismi dell’evoluzione e origine della diversità”. Pearson Italia 2015

Teaching methods

Lectures. Questions and requests of further explanation from the students are always welcome, both during and after the lesson.

Assessment methods

Written exam 

Teaching tools

The course will take place in classrooms with PC projection. All lectures will be given with power point presentations. The files of power point presentations with notes will be made available to students during the course.

Office hours

See the website of Paolo Bernardo Trost