Course Contents

COURSE CONTENTS Introduction; insect genomes; nucleus, chromosomes, DNA and RNA; Gene structure and function; gene transcription and translation; concept of introns 123 and exons; central dogma of molecular biology; polymerase chain reaction (PCR), gene cloning and sequencing; restriction analysis, gene libraries; DNA for insect species identifications and insect population diversity; DNA for phylogenetic analysis and construction of phylogenies; RAPD, RFLP and PCR-RFLP; linkage and chromosomal mapping, genes regulatory processes, mutagenesis; molecular basis of insect functions (insect behavior, insecticidal resistance), gene knock-ins and knock-outs by RNA interference, DNA and protein sequence alignments and use of bioinformatics tools. Books Recommended 1. Gilbert, L. 2005. Comprehensive Molecular Insect Science.1-7 Vol. 2. Glick, B.R. and Pasternek, J..J. 1998. Molecular Biotechnology: Principles and Applications of Recombinant DNA.ASM Press. Washington D.C. 3. Hall, B.G. 2007. Phylogenetic Trees Made Easy: A How to Manual. 3rd Ed. Sinauer Associates. 4. Handler, A. M. James, A.A. (Eds.).2004. Insect Transgenesis: Methods and Applications, Comprehensive review of insect gene transfer, its methodologies, applications and risk assessment and regulatory issues. CRC Press. 5. Hoy, M.A.2000. Insect Transgenesis: Methods and Application. CRC Press.