Examination procedure
Oral exam
Prerequisites
Basic knoldge of life science. Suggested for the firts year.
Syllabus
Module 1 (Cremisi)
Control of gene expression. An overview of gene control. Control of transcription by sequence-specific DNA-binding proteins. Trancription regulators swithc genes off and on. Molecular genetic mechanisms that create and maintain specialized cells types. Mechanisms that reinforce cell memory. Chromatin structure and function: the molecular bases of the epigenetic control of gene expression. The global structure of interphasic chromatin and its role in gene expression control.
Module2 (Raimondi)
Molecular Phylogenetics. Sequence alignments. Multiple sequence alignments. Phylogenetics trees. Protein families. Conserved domains. Homology and analogy. The Tree of Life. The Last Universal Common Ancestor (LUCA).
Module 3 (Cellerino)
Methods for studying gene expression Methods for studying gene function. Elements of mathematical modeling of gene expression control processes.
Bibliographical references
B. Alberts et al., Molecular Biology of the Cell, W W Norton & Co Inc ed.