This course deals with the fundamentals of theoretical and applied molecular evolution. Molecular evolution merges the fields of genetics and evolutionary biology to examine the biological world. Topics to be covered are: DNA, RNA and protein data and databases, mutation and genetic variation, the neutral theory of molecular evolution, homology and alignment, the evolution of RNA and protein structure, synonymous and non-synonymous DNA substitutions, radical and conservative amino acid substitutions, phylogenetic analyses, and sequence-based tests for selection. (lec 3) cr 3.