Master/PhD Courses at University of Oslo:
BIOS4215 – Evolution and Systematics of Organismal Groups: The Animal Kingdom
The animal kingdom provides by far the largest proportion to Earth's biodiversity and they have occupied all habitats on Earth including other organisms. In this subject, we will present the recent knowledge across different animal groups concerning the evolution of their diversity and adaptive solutions to similar ecological challenges in different groups. The evolution of these traits will be set concerning the recent understanding of the animal phylogeny, and taxonomy. In this subject, special emphasis will be put on groups, which are requested by the participating students, as well as on collection-based work as it is conducted at a Natural History Museum. Hence, the subject will also comprise classes about career opportunities as collection management or exhibition development.
Instructors from our group:
Torsten H. Struck (course responsible), Lutz Bachmann, Vladimir Gusarovy, James Fleming, Alberto Valero-Gracia & Ana T. Capucho
BIOS5114/BIOS9114 – Molecular Evolution
The course deals with the principles for evolution of DNA and gene products as well as the use of genetic data in evolutionary studies of organisms. It includes a theoretical introduction to important evolutionary processes in the eukaryotic genome and genome components. In addition the course has a practical component with teaching of molecular techniques, bioinformatics and evolutionary biostatistics.
Instructors from our group:
Lutz Bachmann (course responsible) & Marianne Nilsen Haugen
BIOS5214/BIOS9214 – Biogeography and Biodiversity
This course concerns the geographical distributions of taxa and populations on global and regional scales and the processes that have given rise to these.
Instructors from our group:
Vladimir Gusarov (course responsible) & Torsten Struck
ForBio graduate school course:
Phylogenomics
Advances in high-throughput sequencing and genomics have revolutionized research in evolutionary biology and systematics. The use of genomics data in phylogenetic analyzes has brought new challenges in terms of data handling and analysis. This course aims to help those who have basic experience in bioinformatics and molecular phylogenetics, and have projects focused on high-throughput sequencing data and phylogenetics, to become acquainted with tools, programs and pipelines for phylogenomics and want to conduct phylogenomic studies beyond the standard, also addressing potentially confunding biases in their datasets.
Instructors from our group:
Torsten H. Struck (course responsible) & James Fleming
Smithsonian Workshop:
Smithsonian Marine Station (SMS) Meiofauna Diversity and Taxonomy Workshop
The term "meiofauna" refers to tiny animals capable of passing through a ~0.5-mm mesh. Many meiofaunal animals are interstitial, meaning they burrow in marine sediments. Several entire phyla (such as kinorhynchs, gastrotrichs, and gnathostomulids), major clades of other invertebrate phyla (especially arthropods, nematodes, annelids and flatworms), and miniaturized representatives of most other animal phyla are meiofaunal. Meiofaunal animals have been estimated to account for half of the biodiversity in complex biotopes such as coral reefs, with most of it associated with sediments. While the great phylum- and class- level diversity of meiofauna is well-known, the species-level diversity remains largely unexplored and undocumented. By some estimates, the number of species of meiofaunal nematodes alone that waiting to be formally named dwarfs the number of already described meiofaunal species by two orders of magnitude. Morphological studies of meiofauna have led to groundbreaking insights about their evolution, adaptation, and functional biology (e.g., adhesive and sensory structures), as well as fundamental insights into the evolution of the major animal groups in the tree of life. More recently, advances in molecular biology ranging from DNA barcoding to metabarcoding to whole-genome sequencing have accelerated the pace of the study of all aspects of the biology of meiofauna.
Instructors from our group:
Torsten H. Struck
UiO:Life Science Summer Projects:
UiO:Life Science has funded for several years summer projects for students interested in doing a project based six weeks hands-on training. CEG members have offered several opportunities in the context of the programme in the last years.
2023
Hooded seals (Cystophora cristata) of East Greenland (for one student)
This summer project aimed at generating mitochondrial genome sequences from various hooded seal tissue samples and collection material. This included the bioinformatics assembly of sequence reads from high-throughput sequencing as well as some molecular wet lab work, i.e. high molecular weight genomic DNA extraction, library preparation and sequencing using the Oxford Nanopore Minion system.
Project supervisors: Pia Merete Eriksen & Lutz Bachmann
Summer student on the project: Stephanie Milne
2022
Assessing biodiversity in the marine algae belt in the Norwegian Seas (for two students)
This summer project contributed to the ArtsDatabanken project “Assessing biodiversity in the marine algae belt”. The students participated in two field trips to Austevoll, close to Bergen, and to Tromsø. There, they collected specimens from kelp forests, seagrass meadow and patches of red algae by snorkeling. In the lab, these specimens were identified at least to the family level of the targeted groups (Tunicata, Nemertea, Kamptozoa, Caprellidae, Spionidae and Serpulidae).
Project supervisors: Ana Teresa Capucho & Torsten H. Struck
Summer students on the project: Pia Merete Eriksen & Tengel Hvidsten Tjersland
2021
Assessing biodiversity in the marine algae belt in the Oslofjord (for two students)
This summer project contributed to the ArtsDatabanken project “Assessing biodiversity in the marine algae belt”. The aim of this project was to establish the distribution of species living in the marine algae belt along the coastline of the Oslofjord. Therefore, the students collected samples at selected sites covering all three types of habitat. From each habitat, the species were determined to species or higher taxonomic units and barcodes for each species were generated. The obtained data from these three habitats were compared with each other.
Project supervisors: Ana Teresa Capucho & Torsten H. Struck
Summer students on the project: Marianna Khodabandehlou & Sine Dagsdatter Hagestad
Museomics: Optimizing Mitogenome Sequencing of Herptile Type Material (for one student)
The project will genetically explore the Oslo Natural History Museum amphibians and reptile specimens — providing valuable wet-lab, high-throughput sequencing, bioinformatics, and optimization experience through working with difficult DNA templates. Until relatively recently, zoological collections have been amassed and utilized for the morphological variation seen within and across species. With the advent of next generation sequencing and improved molecular methodologies, natural history collections have become ideal sources of curated (documented) materials to conduct molecular biodiversity studies.
Project supervisors: Rita M. Austin & Lutz Bachmann
Summer student on the project: Pia Merete Eriksen
2020
Assessment of biodiversity at beaches in the Oslofjord (for one student)
The aim of this project was to establish the distribution of species living in the beaches along the Oslofjord including the bunnefjord, inner and outer Oslofjord. Therefore, samples were collected at selected beaches and processed in the laboratory. From all habitats the species were determined to the species to order level and barcodes for each species were generated. The data from the different beaches were compared with each other and set in relation to the environmental data found in the Oslofjord.
Project supervisor: Torsten H. Struck
Summer student on the project: Mari Klaussen
Mitogenomics of Norwegian mud dragons (Kinorhyncha)
The summer project shall aim on developing efficient amplification protocols for whole mitochondrial genomes of Norwegian mud dragon species and populations. Hitherto, nucleotide mitochondrial genome sequences for three species are available in GenBank that can be used for designing primer sets for the amplification of mitochondrial genomes across kinorhynch species. These primer sets shall be tested in the lab, and resulting sequence information shall be analyzed. They shall also be used to identify the presence of mud dragons in environmental DNA extracts from marine sediments.
Project supervisor: Lutz Bachmann
Summer students on the project: Vegard M. Alvestad & Morten Rese
2019
The diversity of meiofauna communities in Norwegian fjords
The term meiofauna relates to small benthic invertebrates that live in both marine and fresh water environments. Meiofauna is loosely defined as organisms by their size, i.e. organisms that are smaller than 1 mm but will be retained by a 45 μm mesh. Accordingly, one will find many taxa represented within a typical meiofauna sample. In the meiofauna of marine muddy sediments we typically find the poorly known mud dragons (Kinorhyncha). There has been mapping efforts for Kinorhyncha during a project financed through artsdatabanken.no in2013-2014. During the Kinorhyncha mapping project several hundreds of meiofauna samples have been collected that are available in the collections of the Natural History Museum (NHM) Oslo. These samples provide excellent starting material to address the biodiversity of Norwegian marine meiofauna. Various approaches can be applied, among them classical morphological species identification and more modern and advanced DNA barcoding or metabarcoding approaches.
Project supervisor: Lutz Bachmann
Summer students on the project: Emma Falkeid Eriksen
2018
Mapping distribution and abundance of Kinorhyncha along the Norwegian coast (Oslofjorden)
Mud dragons of the phylum Kinorhyncha are poorly known and poorly studied invertebrates that together with the Priapulidae and Loricifera belong to the Scalidophora. They occur almost everywhere in marine sediments, and as the name indicates with a preference for muddy ones. They are pretty small animals, usually less than 1 mm long, and therefore contribute to the marine meiofauna, a term that simply relates to size. More dense and systematic sampling and more sophisticated analyses are needed to address their biodiversity and distribution along the Norwegian coast.
The proposed project will include sampling of meiofauna at selected sites in the Oslofjord area and the identification of kinorhynchs using molecular species diagnostics (DNA barcoding).
Project supervisor: Lutz Bachmann
Summer students on the project: Kim Aalborg