Difference between revisions of "Organization of genetics topics"

Revision as of 12:52, 22 August 2014

I am interested in what people thin the best organization of genetics topics might be.

Genetics is a vast, rapidly changing field. There are connections to other diverse fields such as psychology, law, medicine, history, and teaching. A classic way to divide genetics topics is into classical, molecular, and population genetics; however, I suspect this leaves out important areas.

The topics I would like an introductory genetics class to cover (or at least touch on in an introductory sense) include:

• classical genetics
  • Mendelian Inheritance and Punnet squares
  • Complementation tests
  • Genetic linkage and recombination
  • Punnet squares and epistasis
  • alleles and morphs
  • penetrance and expressivity
  • pedigree analysis
  • LOD scores
• cytological genetics
  • chromosomes, mitosis and meiosis
  • sex chromosomes and sex determination systems
  • nondisjunction, aneuploidy and polyploidy
  • distinction between the germ-line and the soma
• molecular genetics
  • gene structure, gene expression regulation, protein structure, and the central dogma
  • genome structure and organization
  • types of mutations and their effects
  • metabolic pathways, developmental pathways, and epistasis
  • transposable elements and other forms of selfish genes
  • genotype/phenotype association tests
  • comparison of model organisms and viral versus bacterial versus eukaryotic genetics
  • methods of genetic engineering and germ line transformation
  • genetic tools such as binary expression systems, PCR, Sanger sequencing, next generation sequencing, restriction endonucleases, and plasmid engineering, FISH, probes, chip hybridization
  • forward genetics and reverse genetics
  • X-inactivation, imprinting and epigenetics
• population genetics
  • inbreeding and population structure
  • average heterozygosity and effective population size, the coalescent
  • selection and genetic drift
  • tests of neutrality
• quantitative genetics
  • parent-offspring regression
  • heritability and phenotype variance
  • breeder's equation
  • twin studies
• evolutionary genetics
  • species phylogeny
  • gene evolution and gene families
  • evo-devo
• supporting statistical logic
  • probability rules
  • binomial distributions
  • normal distribution
  • Poisson distribution
  • the chi-square test and degrees of freedom
  • linear regression
  • means and variance
• interdisciplinary
  • the history of eugenics and current laws regarding genetic data
  • GMO crops including examples, methods, ethics, and economics
  • genetic pest management
  • medical and cancer genetics
  • personal genomics
  • developmental genetics
  • genetic anthropology