Wednesdays 1:00PM-4:00PM
Instructors: Therese Markow, (tmarkow AT public.arl.arizona.edu)
Carlos A. Machado (cmachado AT email.arizona.edu)

Research over the past century has established Drosophila melanogaster as the premier model system for understanding basic processes important to genetics, developmental biology, neurobiology, and medicine. However, this species is only a single member of a diverse genus known to contain approximately 2000 species. While D. melanogaster is an ecological generalist, other species in the genus have a diversity of different ecologies, having specialized on fruit, mushrooms, cacti, flowers, and even the excretory pores of land crabs. The genus Drosophila has proven itself as an unprecedented model for comparative experimental research. No other group of organisms is characterized by such a well-defined phylogeny and an extensive literature on genetics, genome evolution, morphological variation, ecology, physiology, and behavior.

This course will combine lectures with hands-on activities, and you will learn:

• The most important aspects of what is currently known about the ecology, genetics andevolution of Drosophila.
• Concepts in basic and applied biology research that have been greatly influenced byresearch done in Drosophila.
• Laboratory and field techniques used in Drosophila research
• Computer methods used in genomics research, focusing on the study of the newlygenerated and assembled whole genome sequences for 12 related species of Drosophila.