551-0001-AAL General Biology I
| Semester | Spring Semester 2018 |
| Lecturers | U. Sauer, O. Y. Martin, A. Widmer |
| Periodicity | every semester recurring course |
| Language of instruction | English |
| Comment | Enrolment ONLY for MSc students with a decree declaring this course unit as an additional admission requirement. Any other students (e.g. incoming exchange students, doctoral students) CANNOT enrol for this course unit. |
| Abstract | Organismic biology to teach the basic principles of classical and molecular genetics, evolutionary biology and phylogeny. First in a series of two lectures given over two semesters for students of agricultural and food sciences, as well as of environmental sciences. |
| Objective | The understanding of basic principles of biology (inheritance, evolution and phylogeny) and an overview of the diversity of life. |
| Content | The structure and function of biomacromolecules; basics of metabolism; cell biology; membrane structure and function; basic energetics of cellular processes; respiration, photosynthesis; cell cycle, meiosis and sexual life cycles; Mendelian and molecular genetics; animal reproduction and behavior; sensory and motor mechanisms; population biology and evolution; principles of phylogeny. We will treat the following Campbell chapters: 2 Atoms and molecules 3 Chemistry of water 4 Carbon: the basis of molecular diversity 5 Biological macromolecules and lipids 7 Cell structure and function 8 Cell membranes 10 Respiration: introduction to metabolism 10 Cell respiration 11 Photosynthetic processes 12 Mitosis 13 Sexual life cycles and meiosis 14 Mendelian genetics 15 Linkage and chromosomes 20 Evolution of genomes 21 How evolution works 22 Phylogentic reconstructions 23 Microevolution 24 species and speciation 25 Macroevolution |
| Lecture notes | No script |
| Literature | Campbell et al. (2015) Biology - A Global Approach. 10th Edition (Global Edition |
| Prerequisites / Notice | This is a virtual self-study lecture for non-german speakers of the "Allgemeine Biology I (551-0001-00L) lecture. The exam will be written jointly with the participants of this lecture. Example exam questions will be discussed during the lectures, and old exam questions are kept by the various student organisations. If necessary, please contact Prof. Uwe Sauer (sauer@ethz.ch) for details regarding the exam. |