PLANT MOLECULAR BIOLOGY
- Overview
- Assessment methods
- Learning objectives
- Contents
- Bibliography
- Delivery method
- Teaching methods
Students should have a basic knowledge of plant biology, biochemistry, genetic and molecular biology.
The exam consists of a oral examination on the whole program, with a mark out of thirty.
The following criteria will be used to verify the knowledge and skills acquired:
1) the understanding of the covered topics;
2) the ability to interconnect the acquired knowledge;
3) the completeness of the acquired knowledge;
4) the use of a proper terminology.
5)the active participation in the classroom during the course (questions, comments)
The course aims to provide an overview of the fundamental molecular mechanisms governing the growth, development and stress response of the plants.
At the end of the course, the student should reach the ability to:
• Analysing and critically evaluate sets of experimental data in genetics and molecular biology aiming to the isolation and the study of gene expression in the model plant Arabidopsis.
• Explaining the function of the key genes involved in cell differentiation, and plant development from embryogenesis to reproductive phase.
• Describing the function of the hormones and the molecular mechanisms that regulate their activity.
• Describing the molecular mechanisms involved in the plant response too abiotic stresses.
• Nuclear genome in plants: levels of organization, size, polyploidy. repeats, transposons. Plastid and mitochondrial genomes. Genome interactions Arabidopsis thaliana: a model plant for plant molecular analysis. (6h)
• Regulation of plant gene expression: cis and trans elements, microRNA. Epigenetics. (4h)
• An overview of some methods for the study of gene expression: overexpression and gene inactivation (RNA antisense and RNA interference). Classical and insertional mutagenesis. Gene tagging, promoter trapping, enhancer trapping, activating tagging. Reverse genetics: isolation of an insertional mutant in the gene of interest (4h)
• Gene regulation during development: embryogenesis, vegetative growth and flower induction, flower development (12h).
• Plant-growth regulators: perception, signal transduction pathways and physiological effects of auxins, cytokinins, gibberellins, ethylene, abscisic acid and brassinosteroids.(12h)
• Plant molecular response to abiotic stresses: cold and heat stress, water stress and flooding. (10h)
• Smith et al., Biologia delle piante Ed. Zanichelli
• Taiz L. – Zeiger E. Fisiologia vegetale Ed. PICCIN
• Buchanan, Gruissem, Jones, Biochimica e Biologia molecolare delle piante, Zanichelli
• Le presentazioni usate per le lezioni saranno disponibili, per gli studenti iscritti, tramite piattaforma E-learning.
The course is organized in lectures (48 h)
Borrowed from
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