Biodiversity Bioinformatics: From Large-Scale Phylogenomics to Gene Families and Functions

TBA

Dre Valeria Di Cola, SIB Dre Sarah Miéville, CUSO Microbiology Dre Cathy Suarez CUSO Ecology & Evolution

Pr Christophe Dessimoz, UNIL & SIB Pre Natasha Glover, UNIL & SIB Pr Robert Waterhouse, UNIL & SIB Pr Marc Robinson-Rechavi, UNIL & SIB

The aims of this biodiversity bioinformatics course are to (i) explore key evolutionary concepts, (ii) examine different methodological approaches, and (iii) gain hands-on experience in comparative genomic analyses, with an emphasis on characterising protein-coding gene evolution and function across multiple animal genomes, both from model and non model species. This course will focus on concepts and methods for orthology and paralogy of protein-coding genes, complemented with practical examples of applications of comparative genomics approaches to investigate biological and/or evolutionary questions. It will be structured with mostly lectures in the mornings followed by mostly hands-on sessions in the afternoons. This course may touch on, but will not cover in any detail, topics relating to genome sequencing and assembly, genome annotation, population genomics, or genomics of prokaryotes. Learning objectives: At the end of the course participants should be able to: Interpret phylogenetic trees and sequence alignments Infer orthologs and paralogs using graph- and tree-based methods Design and implement comparative analyses to interrogate genomics data, e.g. phylogenomics or gene family dynamics Target audience: This course is aimed at PhD candidates in the life sciences who are planning how to proceed with comparative genomics analyses to investigate biological or evolutionary questions of importance to their study system, particularly to leverage comparative genomics tools and resources to characterise the gene repertoires of non-model species. Knowledge / competencies:

UNIL

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