MBG*3060 - Quantitative Genetics

Course Description

This course examines the nature of Mendelian inheritance when extended to quantitative traits that are jointly influenced by the environment and the simultaneous segregation of many genes. Prediction of response to natural and artificial selection in populations will also be studied.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course, the learner should be able to:

• Analyze how allele frequency can fluctuate within a population over time, describe factors that affect these fluctuations and analyze how these factors affect genetic variation
• Estimate levels of genetic variation within a population and demonstrate how that variation may be exploited to make genetic change in populations over time
• Demonstrate how an individual locus can contribute to quantitative genetic variation involving many loci in the same individual or in many individuals in the population
• Demonstrate how genetic variation can be gained or lost through selection of mates, combining different populations and other mechanisms
• Demonstrate why the mating of close relatives leads to a loss of genetic variation and how to recover lost genetic variation

Course Topics

• Mendelian Genetics
• Linkage
• Migration, Selection, Mutation
• Sampling from a Population
• Individual Inbreeding and Relationships
• Heritability and Response to Selection
• ANOVA for Estimating Heritability and Repeatability
• Direct and Correlated Response and Individual Allele Effects
• QTL Detection and Genetic Mapping

Assessment