Plant Sciences: from cells to the environment

The aim of this module is to develop an understanding of how plants function, via their development and physiology, in relation to key influences in their natural environment. This includes both a consideration of physical factors, and the influences of other interacting organisms, some of which have positive consequences for plant performance, others of which are very detrimental.

The module takes an integrative view of plant function at both the single cell and the whole plant level. The module will reflect the growing emphasis on integrating physiological, molecular and more recent computational approaches to (i) understand how plants develop and function and (ii) engineer plants for non-ideal environments.  The modules exploits developing and pre-existing research strengths within the School.

By the end of this module the you will be able to:

• Know and understand how plants perceive and respond to a range of physical stimuli and signals in order to better adapt themselves to their environment;
• Understand the role of model plants including Arabidopsis in determining plant functions and be able to apply knowledge from model plants to crop plants;
• Understand the fundamentals of plant development ;
• Understand the key ways in which plants perceive, transduce and respond to various signals from their environment;
• Understand how plants interact with other organisms (biotic interactions);
• Design and execute scientific experiments and write scientific reports;
• Apply knowledge to problem solving and data handling; including reading the scientific literature;