Evolutionary Genomics and Transcriptomics [SBOEM165]

Learning outcomes

This course is divided between UCLouvain and UNamur, totalling 30 hours of instruction and 18 hours of practical exercises.

- 18 hours of theory + 12 hours practicals 2 by Prof. Dennis at UNamur
- 12 hours of theory + 6 hours of volume 2 by Prof. Melissa Page at UCLouvain

This course is meant to compliment the LBOE2124 Molecular Ecology course.

Content

Genomic part (Prof. Dennis, UNamur):

• We will discuss: Why we assemble new genomes, why this is valuable across different fields of research, principles of sequencing, assembly, and functional annotation. We will discuss different down-stream analyses with genomes and examples from the current literature.

• In the practicals, we will sequence and assemble a small genome to get hands-on experience in all parts of this process.

Transcriptomic part (Prof. Melissa Page, UCLouvain) :

• History : Transcriptomics as one tool in the toolkit box- Why is transcriptomics such a huge success in Evolution and Ecology?
• Methodology : Experimental procedure - Differences between genomics and transcriptomics - Technological limitations and perspectives of transcriptomics; Another tool in the toolkit box : Quantitative Trait Loci ;
• Case studies using transcriptomics in Evolutionary Ecology with a focus on studies done with data obtained from the wild : Transcriptomics for understanding the Anthropocene, Stickleback fishes Gasterosteus aculeatus case study, Transcriptomics in butterflies, General conceptual conclusions from these case studies; Conclusions at the methodological level.
• Practicals : analyse d'un transcriptome non publié et identification de gènes candidats impliqués dans la production d'un trait physiologique sous sélection sexuelle, la phéromone sexuelle d'un papillon modèle.