Browsing by Author "Illing, Nicci"

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    Evolutionary biology
    (2014-09-29) Illing, Nicci; Muthama, M
    Charles Darwin’s hypothesis of evolution by natural selection or ‘descent with modification’ underlies all modern biology. It allows us to understand our genes, fight viruses, and understand the living and extinct biodiversity of our planet. This course will explore how our knowledge of evolution is important in our society today. A key question today is understanding how the morphology of animals has diversified, given the common set of genes that are found in vertebrate genomes. This question will be considered in the second lecture with a focus on the homeotic genes (or Hox genes) which are highly conserved master regulators of cell identity and morphology in animals. Moving to the plant kingdom, the second lecture will use African biomes as the focus for discussing the evolution of diversity, specifically the African savanna’s ‘underground forests’ will be described and analysed.