Plants are the foundation for all life on earth, and provide the oxygen, food, fuel and medicines that enable human existence. Increasing concerns of the impacts of climate change on sustainable food and fuel production for the growing global population is placing plant biology at the forefront of Biological Sciences research. During this course you will gain an understanding of the essential processes and constraints on plant growth and development to enable exploitation of plants to continue to provide the world with everyday products ranging from food and fuel to pharmaceutical drugs and beauty products. We will explore how innovative technological approaches in plant sciences may provide real solutions to our future predicted global food shortage. Implementation of such biotechnological processes including exploiting gene technologies and 'omics' approaches will speed up the development and selection of food crop varieties that are resistant to abiotic and biotic stress. Our understanding of plant processes is moving rapidly as the techniques of molecular biology and genetics improve and this course aims to give an up to date understanding of key aspects of plant biology and the potential impacts on food security. We study plant physiology processes including carbon assimilation in different photosynthetic pathways (C3, C4 and CAM) and the advantages these confer. How modern molecular and genetic approaches are being used to manipulate various plant processes to increase yield and/or increase stress tolerance in crops will be examined, including the recent development of synthetic wheat. The use of multiparent advanced generation intercross (MAGIC) populations to more accurately identify genetic fingerprints for target traits and how such methods greatly improve traditional breeding approaches will be explored. The overall goal of this course is to provide a fundamental understanding of plant processes and how modern techniques are being used to improve crop yields needed for the production of sustainable food and fuel for the 21st century.
Learning Outcomes:
To pass this module students will need to be able to:
1. describe the importance of plants for food, fuel and fibre in the modern world;
2. demonstrate knowledge of the relationship between whole plant physiology and processes at the cellular and biochemical level;
3. describe how plant development and physiology are affected by and respond to key environmental factors;
4. describe how gene activity can be manipulated using GM and non-GM approaches;
5. demonstrate knowledge of the relationship between genes and whole plant responses;
6. demonstrate knowledge of the modern genetic approaches being adopted to improve crop yields;
7. demonstrate competence in written communication and data analysis and interpretation.
- Module Supervisor: Tracy Lawson
- Module Supervisor: John Stamford