Evolutionary and Systematic Botany

• Foundations of molecular systematics
• Foundations and methods of molecular phylogenetics (phylogenomics)
• DNA taxonomy and barcoding, methods of species delimitation
• Spatio-temporal interpretation of molecular trees (biogeography)
• Population genetics and coalescent theory, phylogeography
• Multivariate statistical analysis of morphological variation, geometric morphometrics
• Methods of (molecular) evolutionary biology (differentiation, selection)

• Presentation and discussion of a research based topic in the field of evolutionary and systematic botany

1. Lecture „Methods in Evolutionary Biology“ (obligatory); the first part of the lecture is in the winter term (Macroevolutionary Approaches) and the second part in the summer term (Microevolutionary Approaches); only one part has to be visited.

2. Lecture “Plant Speciation” (winter) or “Plant Systematics” (summer)

3. CIP-Pool lab course “Bioinformatic Methods in Evolutionary and Systematic Botany” or Seminar "Plant Evolution" (WS and/or SS)

In the lab course a presentation of lab course excercises has to be held and registered in Flexnow as an ungraded study achievement (Studienleistung).

30 min oral examination (graded)

Examiner: Prof. Dr. Christoph Oberprieler

Please get in contact with the examiner to arrange a date of the oral examination, than register the examination in flexnow.

• Acquisition of molecular data (sequence data, DNA-fingerprint data) for phylogenetic and population genetic analyses in angiosperms
• Bioinformatic processing of sequence and fingerprint data
• Performance of phylogenetic analyses based on Maximum Parsimony (MP), Maximum Likelihood (ML), and Bayesian Inference (BI) methods
• Performance of population genetic analyses
• Ploidy analyses of plants using flow cytometry
• Analysis of morphological data using multivariate statistical methods
• Presentation and discussion of own experimental gained data

Laboratory course (6 weeks) with seminar: Evolutionary and Systematic Botany

Portfolio examination (graded)