Plant Molecular Biology (PlantMolBiol)

By attending this course the student will achieve:

Knowledge:
By the end of the course, students are expected to have knowledge of the aspects of plant molecular biology that are included in the curriculum
covered by assigned reading, lectures, seminar presentations and laboratory exercises (see Absalon). Thus, students will be expected to know, among other things, about:

• reproductive and vegetative development
• genome analysis and gene regulation
• light and hormone signaling
• environmental stress & disease
• applied plant biotechnology
• transgenics
• gene cloning and mapping
• DNA and protein bioinformatics

Skills:
Students are expected to develop the following skills:

• Explain the development and anatomy of the model plant Arabidopsis
• Explain the uses of other model plants and crops
• Explain how plants assimilate and transport nutrients
• Explain the occurrence, effects and agricultural uses of the plant hormones (auxin, cytokinin, brassinosteroid, and jasmonic, salicylic, gibberellic and abscisic acids)
• Explain the principles/steps required for cloning, PCR, sequencing, RT-PCR, mutagenesis, transposon and epitope tagging, reporter and marker genes, plant transformation, epistatic analysis
• Explain the uses of mutants and how mutant alleles may be cloned
• Explain forward and reverse genetic screens
• Explain aspects of plant pathogen interactions including disease resistance and susceptibilities

Competences:
Students are expected to develop competences to:

• Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of genetically modified plants
• Discuss and criticize research articles orally and in writing
• Propose experiments to test scientific models or questions
• Interpret different types of experimental data introduced in the course
• Use bioinformatics to search a genome database, annotate the structure of a gene, find mutations in it, identify encoded proteins, compare protein sequences, and propose gene/protein functions