BSc Minor Experimental Plant Physiology (WUEPP) / BSc

Introduction

The BSc minor Experimental Plant Physiology focuses on the improvement of the quality of plant production and plant products for various purposes, including health-related, pharmaceutical and industrial use. These applied research approaches find their basis in fundamental knowledge on developmental biology of plants, interactions between plants and biotic agents, metabolism and adaptation, and genome plasticity. The courses that make up this BSc minor together comprise these aspects at the level of plant cells and individual plants. The interactions between plants and their abiotic and biotic environment are covered as well.

Learning Outcomes

After successful completion of this minor students are expected to be able to:
- apply relevant laboratory techniques for gene isolation, plant transformation and analysis of gene expression patterns in transgenic plants;
- realise the (im-)possibilities of the applications of plant biotechnology from a technical and societal point of view;
- understand the tools used for the development of genetic, physical and sequence maps of prokaryotic and eukaryotic genomes, the relations between these different maps and the specific application of the different maps in genome mapping;
- understand adaptation mechanisms of organisms in response to biotic and abiotic stress factors, and how these affect their interactions;
- show insight in common patterns across kingdoms underlying adaptation and plasticity;
- comprehend the specific adaptations of plants for (selective) uptake, exchange and transport of fluids and nutrients, including symbiosis, resource allocation, storage, excretion, redistribution and accumulation, depending on their life cycle strategy and the type of environmental stress;
- explain the molecular basis of interactions between plants viruses, micro-organisms, nematodes and insects;
- understand the complexity of the repertoire of defense mechanisms that plants utilize to (directly or indirectly) counteract attackers.

BSc Minor Coordinator

Dr G.J. Kuipers
Phone: 0317-(4)82839
Email: anja.kuipers@wur.nl

Target Group

This minor is interesting for WU-students of the BSc-programmes BBI, BBT, BML and BPW-A. The minor is not open to students BBI-B.
University and HBO-students of programmes in Biology and/or Life Sciences.

Components of the BSc Minor

http://www.minors.wur.nl