PLBIO 2420 - Plant Function and Growth Lectures

Spring. 3 credits.

Prerequisite: two majors-level biology courses and/or PLBIO 2410. Corequisite for plant science undergraduates (and highly recommended for other science majors): PLBIO 2421. Recommended prerequisite: one year introductory chemistry. Primarily for undergraduates in agricultural sciences but also for any biological sciences students wanting to know about plant function; suitable as second-level course for nonmajors to satisfy biology distribution requirement. May not be taken for credit after PLBIO 3420 except by written permission of instructor.

T. Silva.

How plants function and grow. Examples deal with crop plants or higher plants where possible, though not exclusively. Topics include cell structure and function; plant metabolism, including photosynthesis; light relations in crops; plant-water relations; water uptake, transport, and transpiration; irrigation of crops; sugar transport; mineral nutrition; growth and development-hormones, responses to light, flowering, fruiting, dormancy, and abscission; stress; tissue culture; and genetic engineering of plants.

Outcome 1: To understand the physiological mechanisms by which plants capture sunlight, obtain nutrients, transport water and sugars, grow, and react to their environment, and to demonstrate an ability to integrate this knowledge into the functioning of an intact plant in a plant community or an agricultural or horticultural setting.

Outcome 2: Students will be able to understand and interpret modern research papers in the field, and also to apply their knowledge as the basis of further studies in plant cell biology, molecular biology, ecology, and agricultural or horticultural crop cultivation.

Outcome 3: In addition students will be able to explain the functioning and growth of plants to those involved in the commercial production of crops.