500799 - GENETICS

courses

ID:

500799

Duration (hours):

72

CFU:

SSD:

GENETICA

Year:

2025

Date/time interval

Secondo Semestre (02/03/2026 - 12/06/2026)

Course Objectives

Aim of this course is to achieve an adequate level of knowledge of: (1) the mode of transmission of hereditary characters at cellular, individual and population level. This will provide the student with the ability to evaluate the genetic variability of living organisms (in line with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, in particular with Goal 15 - Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems / halt biodiversity loss; (2) the structural and functional characteristics of the genetic material; (3) gene expression in prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms.

Course Prerequisites

Basic knowledge of chemistry, mathematics and notions of prokaryotic and eukaryotic (animal and plant) cell biology.

Teaching Methods

The course consists of lectures; integrated by exercise sessions. These sessions will be held during the course period and will allow students to practice on topics of formal, population and molecular genetics. Continuous monitoring of students’ progress and lesson comprehension is carried out throughout the course using Wooclap. Students belonging to the categories established by the University (working students, disabled, students engaged in the care of family members, etc.) who will not be able to attend the class, the recordings of both lessons and tutoring (acquired over the years) will be made available and online meetings with the teachers will be possible.

Assessment Methods

No midterm exams are scheduled; however, continuous monitoring of students’ progress and lesson comprehension is carried out throughout the course using Wooclap. There will be a single final exam for the Genetics course. It consists of two parts. The first is a written text with usually 10 exercises with open and closed answers covering formal, population and molecular genetics. The weight of each exercise is reported in the text. Students who pass the written text (maximum score = 30/30) with a score of at least 18/30, will sustain an oral exam over the entire program of the course. The score of the written text is communicated by Esse3 usually the same day of the text. The oral exam is usually offered starting from the day after the written text. During the lectures and exercise sessions numerous examples of the questions characterizing the written and oral exam are presented and discussed.

Texts

Recommended textbooks:

- A.J.F. Griffiths et al. – W.H. Freeman and Company– Introduction to Genetic Analysis.

- P.J. Russell – Benjamin Cummings - iGenetics. A Molecular Approach.

- D.P. Snustad e M.J. Simmons - John Wiley & Sons Inc- Principles of Genetics.

Texts with exercises:

- Eserciziario di Genetica. Con guida alla soluzione di Daniela Ghisotti, Luca Ferrari, Editore: Piccin-Nuova Libraria.

- Genetica. Quesiti e soluzioni di Silvia Ghirotto, Maria Teresa Vizzari, Feltrinelli.

Part 1. Mitosis and meiosis. Mendel's laws and simple Mendelian ratios. The chromosome theory of heredity. Sex-linked inheritance. Extrachromosomal inheritance. Analysis of pedigrees. Sex determination. Testcross and analysis of two and three character-hybrids. Probability and genetic event. Chi-Square analysis. Chromosome mapping in Eukaryotes. Genetic association and rate of recombination. Cis and trans association. Three point mapping. Interference. Physical mapping; polytenic chromosomes. Karyotype. Genomic mutations, chromosome mutations (variation in number and structure). Monosomy and trisomy in humans. Genetic analysis in Prokaryotes: conjugation, transformation, transduction. Population genetics. The Hardy-Weinberg (H-W) principle. Genetic structure of populations. Evaluation of the genetic variability, consequences of mutation, genetic drift, migration, assortative union and natural selection. Founder effect and bottleneck.

Part 2. The molecular nature of genetic material (experiments of Griffith, Avery, Hershey/Chase). DNA and RNA as genetic material. The organization of DNA in chromosomes. DNA replication (experiment of Meselson/Stahl). The chemical bases of DNA and RNA. Transcription, RNA polymerase in Prokaryotes and Eukaryotes. Promoters and terminators. Organization, properties and characteristics of the genetic code. Translation. Colinearity gene-proteins: exons and introns. Gene mutations and metabolic chains. Concept of gene. Mutations: molecular and functional definition (frame-shift, nonsense, missense).

Topics object of exercises:
- Mitosis and meiosis.
- Mendel's laws.
- Analysis of pedigrees.
- Association, genetic maps.
- Molecular Genetics: transcription, translation and genetic code.
Population genetics, Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium.

Course Language

Italian

More information

The course has a dedicated web site on the e-learning portal of the University of Pavia, Kiro, that students can access using their login credentials.
It is worth to mention that some of the topics in this course, especially those of “population genetics”, are in line with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, in particular with Goal 15 - Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems / halt biodiversity loss.