General information
| Course type | AMUPIE |
| Module title | Inheritance mechanisms - principles of genetics |
| Language | English |
| Module lecturer | prof UAM dr hab. Aleksandra Półtorak, prof. UAM dr hab. Konrad Celiński |
| Lecturer's email | olawp@amu.edu.pl |
| Lecturer position | prof. UAM |
| Faculty | Faculty of Biology |
| Semester | 2026/2027 (winter) |
| Duration | 30 |
| ECTS | 4 |
| USOS code | 01-INHERIT-PIE |
Timetable
Lectures 10h + Seminars 10h + Laboratories 10h = 30h x 2 groups = 60h
Module aim (aims)
This course will place special emphasis on heredity and variation, the mechanisms governing genetic inheritance, Mendelian and non-Mendelian genetic analysis and application of knowledge and skills in practical activities.
Pre-requisites in terms of knowledge, skills and social competences (where relevant)
Basic knowledge of cell biology and genetics, group work skills.
Syllabus
Lecture 1: Menedlian and non-Mendelian inheritance, allelic and non-allelic interactions, epistasis.
Lecture 2: Sex-linked inheritance: sex–linked traits and sex- influenced traits, mechanism of sex determination.
Lecture 3: Chromosomes: types, structure, chromosomal aberrations, sex chromosomes.
Lecture 4: Cytoplasmic inheritance: basis and mechanism, role of organellar genes.
Lecture 5: Quantitative inheritance: concept, genes and environment - heritability, penetrance and expressivity.
Seminar 1: Genetic experimental design: planning, data generation, data analysis, preparing final report. The Chi-square goodness of fit test.
Seminar 2: Drosophila melanogaster as a model organism for genetic analysis and for human genetic disorders (e.g. Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, Alzheimer’s diseases etc.) – presentations and discussion on the selected articles
Seminar 3: Genes and environment interactions - presentations and discussion on the selected articles
Seminar 4: Human genetics: single-gene autosomal traits, pedigree analysis.
Seminar 5: Final test
Laboratories 1: Basics of setting up Drosophila crosses experiment: breeding conditions, life cycle, gender recognition, types of mutants.
Laboratories 2: Dihibrid crosses experiment on a Drosophila and maize models.
Laboratories 3: Inheritance of sex-linked traits – Drosophila crosses experiment.
Laboratories 4: Gene complementation - Drosophila crosses experiment.
Laboratories 5: Cytological preparation of polytene chromosome in larval stages of Drosophila.
Reading list
Winter P.C., Hickey G.I, Fletcher H.L. Instant notes in genetics. BIOS Scientific Publishers, 2012.Khanna P. Essentials of genetics. I. K. International Pvt Ltd, 2013.Klug.
Concepts of genetics. Pearson Education, 2002B. A. Pierce. Genetics. A conceptual approach. 2017