Marine Genomics is a young scientific discipline that involves the application of genomic techniques to investigate the phenotype of marine organisms and the function of marine ecosystems.

For example, (1) “metagenomic” approaches are now deemed essential for reconstructing the microbial communities that drive nutrient cycling in marine ecosystems, (2) “transcriptomic” approaches are increasingly being utilized to understand how marine organisms respond to environmental stress at the molecular level, and (3) “population genomic” approaches are being used to investigate the microevolution of animal populations.

The theoretical portion of this course will cover the evolution of genomes, the architecture of gene networks, the connection between genotype and phenotype, and the basics of population genetics.

The practical portion of this course will involve bioinformatic and phylogenetic analyses of “deep” mRNA sequencing data generated by last year’s students for our local coral species, the northern star coral Astrangia poculata. Laboratory research projects will involve a metagenomic analysis of this coral and/or specimens that were collected at Calabash during Tropical Marine Invertebrates.