ANIMAL AND PLANT BIOLOGY AND ANIMAL GENETICS
cod. 1000379

Academic year 2007/08
1° year of course -
Professor responsible for the course unit
BRACCHI Pier Giovanni
integrated course unit
9 credits
hub:
course unit
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Course unit structured in the following modules:

Learning objectives

<p>1) the characteristics of the cell, the tissues and the main functions of plant organs for the purpose of acquiring elements that allow them to be recognized and described, and their use by animals;</p>
<p>2) basic taxonomy, structure and function of the most important vertebrate and invertebrate animals, basic cell function and mechanism, organization, expression and transmission of genetic information, basic molecular biology, basic principals of animal behaviour;</p>
<p>3) provide the student with the fundamentals for understanding the transmission of characteristics.</p>

Prerequisites

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Course unit content

<p>1) The constituents of living organisms: organic matter and inorganic matter. <br />
Autotrophism and heterotrophism. Some aspects of plant metabolism: photosynthesis; assimilation of nitrogen; taking up of the main mineral elements <br />
Prokaryotes. Saprophytism and symbiosis. Rhizobium-leguminose symbiosis. Eukaryotes:cell walls, plastids, vacuols. Cell development and differentiation. Plant tissues and their functions. Vegetative and reproductive systems. Products of secondarymetabolism. Angiosperms. </p>
<p>2) Biodiversity:the diffrerences and similarities between plants and animals. Animal cell. Inheritance,genetic engineering. Cell division. Mendelian genetics. Population genetics and evolution. Taxonomy, form and function of the most important invertebrate and vertebrate animals. Basic concepts of the biological basis of animal behavior and applications to asses the animal welfare.</p>
<p>3) Structure of animal populations. Outline of genetic transmission of characteristics. Mendelian heredity (qualitative characteristics, laws of Mendel, gene interaction and deviation from expected Mendelian relationships, sex determination and sex-related heredity, lethal genes, multiple allelism). Genetic basis for equine coat colouring. Population genetic principles (concept of gene frequency, law of Hardy-Weinberg). Statistical concepts (probability, variance, covariance, correlation and regression). </p>
<p> </p>

Full programme

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Bibliography

<p>1) BOCCHI A.: Elementi di Botanica. Ed. Libreria Goliardica Parmense, 1977 - available from the General Library of the Faculty. <br />
GEROLA F.M., GEROLA P.D.: Botanica. Ed. UTET, Torino, 1988. <br />
PUPILLO P., CERVONE F., CRESTI M., RASCIO N.: Biologia Vegetale. Zanichelli editore Bologna, 2003. </p>
<p>2) CLEVELAND P., HICKMAN JR. ET AL. Diversità animale. McGraw-Hill, 2004, Web site. <br />
CLEVELAND P., HICKMAN JR. ET AL. Fondamenti di Zoologia. McGraw-Hill, 2005, Web site. <br />
MAINARDI D. L'Etologia caso per caso. Airplane 2002. <br />
AUTORI VARI. The Ethology of domestic animals. An introductory test. P.Jensen ed., 2002. </p>
<p>3) PIERCE B.A.: Genetics. Zanichelli Ed., Bologna 2005.</p>

Teaching methods

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Assessment methods and criteria

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Other information

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