Genetics 100 Hours Certificate Course

There are 10 lessons in this course:

1. Introduction to Genetics

• Scope, nature and history
• Darwin and Mendel
• Mendel’s experiment
• Mendel’s law of segregation
• Mendel’s Law of Independent Assortment
• Advances since Mendel
• Important genetics terminology
• Set task
• Assignment

2. Cells, Organelles and Cell Division

• Prokaryotes
• Eukaryotes
• Organelles in the cell
• Cell structure and function
• Organelles in plants -Cell wall, Vacuole,Plastids
• Organelles in plants and animals - plasma membrane, cytoplasm, ribosomes etc.
• Genetic structures and materials
• Nucleus
• Nuclear envelope
• Nucleolus
• DNA
• Cell division –meiosis and mitosis
• DNA replication
• Four stages of Mitosis
• Cytokinesis
• Gameotogenesis
• Gametes
• Meiosis
• Meosis 1
• Meosis 2
• Gamete production in plants
• Set task
• Assignment

3. Interaction between Chromosomes

• Introduction
• Sex determination
• Sex chromosomes
• Sex linked inheritance
• Haemophilia example
• Colour blindness example
• Linkage and crossing over
• Linked genes
• Genetic mapping
• Set task
• Assignment

4. Interaction between Genes

• Introduction
• Traits and gene expression
• Polygenic inheritance
• Gene interactions
• Epistasis
• Enhancer genes
• Suppressor gene
• Incomplete dominance
• Codominance
• Lethal genes
• Cytoplasmic inheritance
• Gene expression
• Transcription
• Translation
• Set tasks
• Assignment

5. Genetic Chemistry

• Nucleic acids
• DNA (Deoxyribonucleic Acid) Structure
• Double Stranded Helix
• Chromasomes
• Chromatin
• Chromatids
• Understanding the genetic code
• Role of proteins
• Transcription and translation
• Post translational modification
• Introns and exons
• Reading the code
• Set task
• Assignment

6. Mutations

• Introduction
• Chromosome mutations
• Insertion
• Inversion
• Duplication
• Translocation
• Nondisjunction
• Gene mutations
• Point mutations (single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)
• Point substitution mutation
• Insertions
• Deletions
• Frameshift mutations
• Categories of gene mutations
• Silent mutations
• Missense mutations
• Nonsense mutations
• How do mutations occur
• Radiation
• Viruses or other microorganisms
• Chemicals
• Spontaneous mutations
• Effect of mutations
• Repair of mutations
• Set task
• Assignment
• DNA Repair and Recombination
• Introduction
• Excision pathways
• Methyl directed mismatch repair
• SOS repair
• Photoreactivation (Light dependent repair)
• Crossing over
• Recombination
• Set task
• Assignment

7. Developmental Genetics

• Introduction
• Genetics are instructions for structures
• Cellular organisation and differentiation
• Model organisms used in developmental genetics
• Why study developmental genetics
• The human genome project
• Birth defects
• Genetic advances in birth defects
• Gene therapy
• Gene therapy and cancer
• Set task
• Assignment

8. Population genetics

• What is population genetics
• Genetic variation within a population
• How do we measure genetic variation
• The hardy weinberg law
• Evolutionary agents and their effect on populatyion genetics
• Mutations
• Movement of individuals between populations
• Genetic drift
• Non random mating
• Natural selection
• Polymorphism
• Set tasks
• Assignment

9. Applied Genetics

• Genetics in breeding animals
• Farm animal breeding
• Breeding pets
• Genetics for breeding plants
• Cloning plants
• Cloning -somatic cell nuclear transfer
• Modifying organisms genetically
• Transgenic animals
• Agricultural applications for transgenics
• Medical applications for transgenics
• Transgenics to modify DNA in plants
• Genetics in human health science
• Disease understanding
• Diagnosis of disease
• Genetic screening
• Gene therapy
• Pharmacogenomics
• Set task
• Assignment

Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school's tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.