Credit hours
In-class work per week |
Practice per week |
Credits |
Duration |
Total |
3 |
2 |
8 |
15 weeks |
120 hours |
Instructor
Mateus Mondin
Objective
Basic concepts of Cytogenetics applied to plant breeding are presented and their implications to
genomics, epigenomics, evolution, systematic, biotechnology and ecology, covering: 1) Introduction to
Cytogentics; 2) Introduction to genome organization, chromatin epigenetics and chromosome structure
(DNA sequences and chromosomal proteins - histone and non-histone proteins); 3) mitotic behaviour
and biotechnology applications; 4) meiotic behavior and applications to plant breeding; 5) Cytological
and molecular principles of genetic mapping; 6)Structural and numerical chromosomal alterations,
mechanism of origin and consequences; 7) Importance of the chromosomal alterations to evolution and
gene mapping into the chromosomes; 8) Recombination mechanisms, meiotic behavior and genetic
mapping in polyploid species (cytogenetic principles); 9) variant chromosomal systems from
parthenogenesis and apomixis.
Content
- Introduction to Cytogenetics. General overview of chromosomes behavior during cell cycles - mitosis
and meiosis, chromatin strcuture and molecular organization of the chromosomes. Introduction to
epigenetic indexing mechanism.
- Meiotic behavior. Meiosis and recombination, linkage and crossing-over. Genetic and Cytological Maps.
Genetic mapping approaches in plant and animals. Meiotic instabilities and their consequences to
fertility.
- Alterations in chromosome structure - deficiencies/deletions, duplications, inversions and
translocations. Origin, phenotypic effects, meiotic behavior and its genetic consequences. Segmental
Genome Duplication (SGD)
- Alterations in chromosome numbers - aneuploidy, autopolyploidy and allopolyploidy. Origin and genetic
consequences. Importance in the evolution and for breeding. Aneuploidy applied to genetic mapping.
- Whole Genome Duplication (WGD) and types of poliploidy. Artificial polyploids. Gene expression and
silencing in polyploids. Gene expression and epigentic alterations as consequences of genome
duplication.
- Diversity in reproductive systems, parthenogenesis and apomixis. Cytogenetics, Evolution and
Biotechnology. Study of cases covering the main subjects.
Practicals: chromosome analysis in plant and animals. Chiasma and meiotic instability analysis in maize.
Chromosomal alterations in plants. Physical mapping of ribosomal genes by Fluorescent Molecular in situ
Hybridization. Immunodetection of chromosomal proteins and DNA methylation. Introduction to
bioinformatic applied to cytogenetics.
Bibliography
ALBERTS, B.; A. JOHNSON; J. LEWIS; M. RAFF; K.ROBERTS & P. WALTER. Molecular Biology of the Cell.
London : Garland, 2002 (4ª ed.)
APPELS R., MORRIS R., GILL B.S., MAY C.E. Chromosome Biology. Spring-Verlag. 1998.
BASS H.W., BIRCHLER J.A. Plant Cytogenetics: Genome Structure and Chromosome Function (Plant
Genetics and Genomics: Crops and Models). Spring-Verlag. 2012.
BURNHAM, C.R. Discussion in Cytogenetics. . 2a ed., Burgerss Publ. Company. 1962.
GUPTA, P.K. ; T. TSUCHIKA (eds). Chromosome Engineering in Plants: Genetics, Breeding and Evolution.
Amsterdan : Elsevier, 1991.
KUSH, G.S. Cytogenetics of Aneuploids. New York : Academic Press. 1973
SINGH, R. J. Plant Cytogenetics. Boca Raton : CRC Press. 1993.
SWANSON, C.P.; T. MERS e W.J. YOUNG. Cytogenetics. New Jersey : Prentence-Hall. 1981
SYBENGA, J. Cytogenetics is Plant Breeding. Berlin : Springer-Verlag .1992.
TURNER, B. Chromatin and gene regulation. Molecular Mechanisms in Epigenetics. Oxford: Blackwell.
2001.