The course is designed to introduce students of the Postgraduate International
Nematology Course (PINC), the Gent University, Belgium in the principles of
molecular taxonomy and phylogeny of nematodes. This course deals with different methods of
molecular identification of nematodes such as IEF of proteins, PCR-RFLP,
multiplex PCR with specific primers, Real-Time PCR, and hybridization
techniques. The lectures cover the basic methods of phylogenetic analysis
(minimum evolution, maximum parsimony, maximum likelihood and Bayesian
inference) and their application in fields of nematode systematics. The course also emphasizes hands-on experience with
software tools for editing and aligning sequence data, re-constructing trees
and working with databases.