Advanced module: 'Host - Parasite Coevolution'
Next in WS 2015/16
Venue: IEB, Hüfferstr. 1, start 10:15 (s.t.), practical course room (S10 = Hü K).
People involved: Jörn Scharsack (coordinator), Barbara Hasert, Hilde Schwitte, Joeseph Lange, Frederik Franke, Manuel Talarico, Gregor Schmitz, Juliette De Meaux, Sophie Armitage and Joachim Kurtz.
This is a module of the Special Study Program 'Evolution & Biocomplexity'.
Parasites are just everywhere! - and they are among the strongest evolutionary forces. Host-parasite interactions are thus central to understand how organisms evolve. Here the term 'parasites' includes all organisms that live in or on another organism (the host) and cause fitness reduction of the host. This course teaches the basic background and current research progress in the fields of host-parasite co-evolution, the evolution of immunity and virulence evolution. It comprises a lecture series, a seminar series and the design and carrying out of your own research project. Frequent oral presentations of the students about their projects or literature work will give ample opportunity to train analytical and presentation skills.
The course is composed of 3 main parts:
Lectures will introduce basic concepts of host-parasite coevolution, spanning the field from the evolution of immunity as the major host defence against parasites to medically relevant aspects, such as the evolution of virulence and resistance. Moreover, the lectures will also confer relevant basic knowledge of parasitology, immunology and evolution in animals and plants.
Paper seminar: You will first be given an introduction into how to evaluate papers. To help you with this, you will also be introduced to the peer review system, which is the way in which papers are reviewed by journals before they are published. Then in groups of four, you will choose a peper from one of the speakers invited to the IEB seminar during the course in the field of host-parasite coevolution, read it thoroughly and discuss it with your group, then present it to the other participants and lead a seminar discussion. Thereafter you will have the chance to discuss the paper personally with the invited speaker. The seminars will help you to critically evaluate research papers and to train your presentation and oral communication skills.
Do your own research project: In this part of the course you can plan and carry out your own research project. In groups of two-three students, you have the choice between 4 proposed topics. Alternatively, you have also the possibility to propose your own topic in the field of host-parasite interactions. All experiments will be carried out with one of our model systems (Arabidopsis, flour beetles or sticklebacks). From a textbook and key research papers you will learn the basic predictions in this field. You will write a proposal and design an experiment to test your hypothesis. You will do the experiment. You will analyze your data and sum up the story in a nice report. Finally, in a poster presentation you have the opportunity to persuade your colleagues that your experiment is great and that it is worth the money.
Online material (partly from previous course, WS 2012/13):
Course script
Course introduction (Jörn Scharsack)
Host-parasite coevolution lecture
Lecture "Host-Parasite Coevolution" (Joachim Kurtz)
Lecture "Evolutionary Ecology of Immune Defence" (Joachim Kurtz)
Paper seminar (Sophie Armitage):
Introduction