Topics: Genetic Variation, The Hardy-Weinberg Principle, Recombination, Linkage and Disequilibrium, Basic Models for Natural Selection, Mutation, Genetic Drift, Inbreeding, Non-random mating, Population subdivision and Gene Flow, Molecular Population Genetics, Molecular Evolution, and Phylogenetics. Advanced Models for Natural Selection and Quantitative Genetics.

The course will give the students a broad conceptual understanding of how complex genomics data can be used to provide new biological insights. We will focus in particular on how we can study molecular mechanisms underlying biological differences at three levels; between species, between individual in a population and between cells in an organism.

The course is scheduled as a combination of a ‘group internship’ at a given company and a set of skills training and exercises. Groups of students will do a domain-related assignment. This assignment should comply with the following criteria: it should be a commissioned multidisciplinary assignment, concern a real authentic case, offer a certain level of complexity, reflecting various interests and stakeholders, and it should require an academic level to address the issue.

This course covers several more advanced statistical models and associated designs, and techniques for statistical inference, as relevant to life science studies. Students will be able to perform analysis of data with statistical software, i.e. with R-Studio.

This course explains genetic and molecular evolution and their relationship to phenotypic evolution, of natural, captive and domesticated populations of living organisms, ranging from microbes to plants and animals. The course deals with the dynamics of genetic variation, by evaluating the effect of and the equilibrium between mutation, natural selection, genetic drift and migration. Furthermore, it deals with the translation of genotypic variation to phenotypic variation in interaction with environmental variation. Understanding the dynamics of genetic variation, and its translation to a phenotype, is not only important for understanding past and predicting future evolutionary change, but also for its relationship to biodiversity.

Data analysis is central to both plant and animal breeding, and the size and complexity of phenotypic and genomic data sets continue to increase. Thus, the ability to analyse and interpret such large data sets is an essential skill for breeders, both in science and industry. In this course you will become familiar with state-of-the-art methods and skills for quantitative genetic analysis of breeding data, both for animals and plants. This is a hands-on course, where you develop the skills to analyze real-life data and handle real-life problems in genetic analysis.

In this course, we will start by discussing the basic concepts of conservation genetics. We will discuss how to measure genetic variation using pedigree and molecular data. We also discuss the various evolutionary forces that shape genetic variation in both wild and captive populations. The relevance of biodiversity in relation to scientific, ethical and societal questions will be dealt with in a variety of (guest) lectures.

The course discusses how to obtain data on the biodiversity (species diversity and genomic diversity) and adaptation of organisms to changing environments. This is done by applying DNA sequencing technology to study a diversity of samples including eDNA from water samples. Through lectures and tutorials, this course will introduce the main principles underlying biodiversity and genetic diversity assessment using DNA sequencing. Characterisation of diversity, from within species to species communities, will be used to infer ecosystem functioning and infer response to a changing environment.

The course will cover basic life history theory by highlighting major decisions animals have to make with respect to reproduction and adaptation. Life history decisions are very fundamental for wildlife biology as they affect fitness and thus animal biodiversity through natural selection. The course will focus on life history in vertebrates.

The course discusses the structure and function of genomes of organisms from all kingdoms. The topics that are treated cover:
– chromosome structure and topology;
– genome sequencing, genome assembly and functional annotation;
– whole genome sequence analysis; genome synteny and evolution;
– transcriptome analysis by RNA-seq; single-cell omics; epigenomics
– functional genome analysis;
– variation in genomes.

Topics: Genetic Variation, The Hardy-Weinberg Principle, Recombination, Linkage and Disequilibrium, Basic Models for Natural Selection, Mutation, Genetic Drift, Inbreeding, Non-random mating, Population subdivision and Gene Flow, Molecular Population Genetics, Molecular Evolution, and Phylogenetics. Advanced Models for Natural Selection and Quantitative Genetics.

The course will give the students a broad conceptual understanding of how complex genomics data can be used to provide new biological insights. We will focus in particular on how we can study molecular mechanisms underlying biological differences at three levels; between species, between individual in a population and between cells in an organism.

The aim of the course is to familiarize students with the basic concepts of statistics and their application in agricultural science. The second goal is to learn the use of software packages like SAS.

Students will learn the basic elements and structures of breeding programs in plant and animal breeding. They understand the relationship between biological characteristics of the crop or livestock species and the specific design of the breeding program. The students know the four breeding categories and design possibilities of breeding programs for self-pollination, cross-pollination and vegetative and clonally propagated crops. They learn breeding programs for major crops and livestock species.

Topics: Genetic Variation, The Hardy-Weinberg Principle, Recombination, Linkage and Disequilibrium, Basic Models for Natural Selection, Mutation, Genetic Drift, Inbreeding, Non-random mating, Population subdivision and Gene Flow, Molecular Population Genetics, Molecular Evolution, and Phylogenetics. Advanced Models for Natural Selection and Quantitative Genetics.

The course will give the students a broad conceptual understanding of how complex genomics data can be used to provide new biological insights. We will focus in particular on how we can study molecular mechanisms underlying biological differences at three levels; between species, between individual in a population and between cells in an organism.

The course will offer lectures and discussion sessions within sustainability in plant and animal food systems. Through interdisciplinary discussion teams and literature studies, the students will be challenged to include their overall knowledge from their studies. UN’s sustainability development goals will be included in a broad study of the possibilities and challenges within current and future food production. The holistic perspective of sustainability will be explored, including all dimensions. Aspects as the use of resources, land use, trade-off settings, food security, feed-food competition, and biodiversity will be considered. The students work in teams with a chosen food system, which is studied and discussed on the basis of scientific literature. Students are evaluated based on team activity and a final assignment where students work on redesigning their chosen food system with changes justified in improved sustainability.

Predicting the effect of breeding schemes is an important prerequisite for optimisation of elements of a breeding scheme. This covers direct effects of selection on traits selected for, indirect effects on correlated traits and risk assessment relative to inbreeding and sustainability. The course focuses on understanding and application of methods for prediction of the effect of alternative breeding schemes, deterministic and stochastic simulation. In addition, formulation of breeding objectives, use of molecular genetic information, reproduction technologies, selection and mating strategies. The course will primarily focus on the elements of a deterministic model for prediction of of response to selection, based on understanding the elements of the model and on use of the model to compare alternative breeding schemes for pig, cattle, sheep, poultry and fish. Computer exercises will primarily be based on R.

– Mapping of single genes and markers, – Mapping of Quantitative Trait Loci (QTL), – Fine scale mapping of QTL based on linkage disequilibrium, – Marker assisted selection, – Genomic selection.

Application of Modelling to animal Physiology (4 ECTS)

Animal breeding: genetics, selection and conservation (3 ECTS)

Physiology and Genetics of Animal Reproduction (2 ECTS)

Elective courses (3 out of 6 elective courses must be chosen from 2 options)

Adaptation (elective courses A – option 1) – 1 ECTS

Livestock Precision Farming (elective courses A – option 2) – 1 ECTS

Conservation Genetics (elective courses B – option 1) – 1 ECTS

Rumen physiology: in vitro studies for nutritional evaluation (elective courses B – option 2) – 1 ECTS

Epidemiology and Health (elective courses C – option 1) – 1 ECTS

Advanced genetics and Omics data integration (elective courses C – option 2) – 1 ECTS

Concept of holobiont in animal breeding: Metagenomics (1 ECTS)

Environmental regulation of genes expression in animal breeding and reproduction: Epigenetics (1 ECTS)

Concepts in Populations and Quantitative Genetics (3 ECTS)

Tools : Biostatistics, Bioinformatics and Modelling (5 ECTS)

Animal Epistemology, Experiments, Ethics and Welfare (3 ECTS)

Intercultural module (0 ECTS)

Personal Professional Project (1 ECTS)

Sustainable Development Goals (1 ECTS)

Scientific Project (3 ECTS)