Biology 443 Plant Molecular Genetics, Fall 2013
Biology Department, Concordia University
Instructor: Dr. Gulick ([email protected])
Office SP-501.07 and SP-375.1
Classroom CC-305. Time: Tu/Th 11:45 – 1:00
Plant Molecular Genetics analyses plant genome structure, gene-cloning strategies,
gene transfer in plants, gene regulation.
The course includes a survey of
specialized topics including plant disease resistance, signal transduction and the
regulation of flower induction, bioinformatics and the use of genetically modified
organisms (GMOs) in agriculture. Innovative applications of molecular analysis
and genetic engineering in plants have had a dramatic impact on our basic
understanding of plant growth and development, and have a strongly influenced
plant improvement in modern agriculture through genetic engineering. The course
uses original research articles as the primary reading material and enhances the
students’ skills in the use and analysis of primary literature. Prerequisite: BIOL
367.
Outline
1. Historical view and biological characteristics of plant genetics,
Biotechnology and plant breeding
2. Bt toxin for insect resistance in plants –
-the first example of a genetically engineered trait in a crop species that is widely
used in agriculture.
2. Genome structure
- The Arabidopsis Genome Sequence, gene number, density, genome
duplications, repeated sequences, transposons.
4. Disease resistance in plants
5. The molecular biology of flowering – a model for signal transduction analysis
6. Plant Genomics – and Bioinformatics
Use of DNA sequence data bases- computer lab exercise
Express Sequence Tag (EST) data bases
Characterization of gene knock-out mutant collections.
7. The environmental stress response and stress resistance in plants
8. Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs).
The debate on food safety and food security.
The Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) vs. the Corporations.
9. MicroRNAs - Gene suppression by anti sense and hairpin structured RNAs and
natural miRNAs
10. Special topic TBA.
Sunday, October 27, 2013 is the last day for academic withdrawal from fall-term
courses.
Organization:
The course meets twice a week Tu/Th 11:45 – 1:00.
There will be two weeks in the semester in which we will meet in the computer lab in the
Biology Dept., room SP 365-23, for bioinformatics lecture and practice.
The course will be based entirely on original articles. There is no text book.
The articles will be the topics of the lectures and they will be discussed in class.
Original articles are generally more difficult to understand than textbooks, one of the
goals of the course is to become familiar with original scientific literature and to help you
decipher it.
Assigned papers will be available on the Moodle course web site on My Concordia.
Grading
Grading will be based on 3 to 4 take home exams, and one in-class exam, and a
bioinformatics exercise. Each exam will be 50 or 100 points, the in-class exam will be
100 points and the Bioinformatics exercise will be 100 points. Total points for the course
will be 450 to 500 and the final grade will be calculated as a % of the total.
You will have one week to complete take-home exams.
There will be two weeks of bioinformatics in the course.
The course grading scheme is:
A+ = 90
A = 85-90
A- = 80-85
B+ = 77-80
B = 74-77
B- = 70-74
+
C = 67-70
C = 64-67
C -= 60-64
D+ = 57-60
D = 54-57
D- = 50-54
F = <50.
Dr. Gulick will not have fixed office hours, feel free to make an appointment to discuss
any course material.
Sept 3, 2013. Reading list for week 1 and 2
BT toxin expression in tobacco.
1. Mark Vaeck, Arlette Reynaerts, Herman Hofte, Stephan Jansens, Marc de Beuckeleer,
Caroline Dean, Marc Zabeau, Marc van Montagu and Jan Leemans. (1987) Transgenic
plants protected from insect attack. Nature 328:33-37.
Plant Genomes
2. The Arabidopsis Genome Initiative. Analysis of the genome sequence of the flowering
plant Arabidopsis thaliana. (2000) Nature 408:796-815.
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