BIO-8025 Molecular identification for species diagnostics: from DNA Barcoding to Metabarcoding - 5 stp

Biodiversity loss, often referred to as biodiversity crisis, is a global environmental problem causing international concern and demanding urgent counteracting measures. Biodiversity is commonly defined in terms of a number of species present in a particular environment, or in total in the world. This makes species not only one of the fundamental biological concepts but also a focus of global conservation efforts. Currently morphology based species delimitation provides the baseline for conservation of most plant and animal groups. Development of molecular systematics and computational algorithms has been gradually bringing more and more genetic based approaches to characterizing species as evolutionary units, as compared to morphology based taxonomical units. The course focuses on high-throughput screening approaches of DNA sequence variation (i.e., DNA barcoding and Metabarcoding) for species identification and discovery that provide rapid assessments of biodiversity, animal diet assessment, reconstruction of paleo communities, among others. The course will consist of a series of lectures and bioinformatics practicals introducing different aspects of DNA metabarcoding. Bioinformatics practicals will introduce data analysis from raw sequences to taxonomic group assignment to enable basic ecological conclusions.

This course is organized with financial support from ForBio. Please see additional information available at: ForBio

Who can apply as a singular course student:

• PhD student enrolled at another institution than UiT. PhD students must upload a document from their university stating that there are registered PhD students. This group of applicants does not have to prove English proficiency and are exempt from semester fee.
• Holders of a master´s degree of five years or 3+2 years (or equivalent) may be admitted. These applicants must upload a Master´s Diploma with Diploma Supplement / English translation of the diploma. Applicants from listed countries must document proficiency in English. To find out if this applies to you, see the following list: Proficiency in English must be documented - list of countries. For more information on accepted English proficiency tests and scores, as well as exemptions from the English proficiency tests, please see the following document:  Proficiency in english - PhD level studies 

Maximum 15 participants.

If more than 15 applicants, priority will be given as follows:

1. Participants admitted to the PhD programme at UiT
2. Participants in the Associate Professor programme (Førstelektorprogrammet)
3. PhD candidates from other universities
4. People with a minimum of a Masters degree (or equivalent), who have not been admitted to a PhD programme

After the course the students should have 
Knowledge:

• You learn about DNA based molecular identification for species diagnostics: DNA Barcoding and Metabarcoding.

Skills:

• You acquire skills for analyses of raw sequence data: taxonomic assignment and phylogeny reconstruction for species identification and discovery.

General competence:

• You improve your analytical skills to use molecular tools for biodiversity assessment, animal diet assessment and reconstruction of paleo communities.

Oral presentation and written report containing results from a case study (100 % of mark). A graded scale of five marks from A to E for pass and F for fail.

Re-sit exam:

There will be a re-sit examination for students that did not pass the previous ordinary examination.