Mechanisms of genetic change in plant evolution, both in nature and under human influence. Topics include neo-Darwinian theory; speciation and hybridization; origins and co-evolution of nuclear and organelle genomes; gene and genome evolution; transposable elements; chromosome rearrangements; polyploidy; genetic modification. Lab introduces methods in information gathering, bioinformatics, genome analysis, plant breeding, and genetic manipulation. Lab.

Advanced research or scholarly projects developed and conducted under the supervision of a faculty member. Provides the opportunity to apply advanced knowledge and techniques of the major to a specific problem or question.

Independent research project under the direction of a faculty sponsor for seniors in genetics and in the Honors Program. Final product is a written thesis. One or two semesters.

Development of programming skills that enable life science students to ask fundamental biological questions that require computers to automate repetitive tasks and handle query results efficiently. Topics include: computer values of important parameters of biological sequence data; pattern search and motif discovery scripts; accessing, querying, manipulating, retrieving, parsing, analyzing, and saving data from local and remote databases. One semester of bioinformatics and one semester of genetics recommended. Computer Lab.