Biodiversity and Evolution

The course aims to contribute to the training of master's graduates who have a full understanding of the fundamentals of evolutionary biology and the mechanisms underlying the generation of biodiversity. These fundamentals will be declined both in a theoretical and in a methodological way (e.g. in relation to the methodologies for phylogenetic reconstruction and for the study and classification of biodiversity, also on a molecular basis). The objective will be to clarify how the methodological tools represent both the translation of theoretical knowledge, but also a new source of data, in turn stimulating the generation of new theoretical formulations. The fundamental concepts of the discipline will be presented in a historical key, with particular emphasis on the main discussions, sometimes diatribes, which have accompanied the development of the different areas of experimental research and theoretical elaboration of evolutionary biology.

At the end of the course, the student will acquire:
Knowledge of the basic concepts of biological evolution (such as: fitness; natural selection; mutation; homology; analogy).
Knowledge of specific issues (such as: the targets of natural selection; altruism; neutrality theory; origin of life and cells).
Knowledge of evolutionary mechanisms at the molecular level.
Knowledge of the principles underlying the main approaches for the reconstruction of phylogenetic trees, and their applications.
A general picture of the current knowledge on the evolution and diversity of life on earth: bacteria, archaea, eukaryotes; main lineages in the eukaryotes.