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Plant developmental biology

Class at Faculty of Science |
MB130P51

Syllabus

MB130P51 Vývojová biologie rostlin  

Practical info

Taught in English, if non-Czech speaking students enroll

Start:  23.2. 2023 – Thursdays  

Exam: two parts

Written test – 50 points

-       Written answers to questions that cover the lectures

-       Written in CZ or English  

Essay – 50 points

-       A cca 2-page essay on a given topic

-       A manual and grading criteria will be explained during the practical part

-       Written in CZ or English  

Extra: Activity during practicals or homeworks – 10 bonus points    

Grading: 100-91 = 1 90-81 = 2 80-71 = 3 70-0 = fail  

Both parts of the exam are required to pass.

In case the student fails, the written test can be repeated once. In case the student still fails, an oral exam will be made.  

Concept of the lecture: 3 pillars

-           Lectures

-           reading, studying at home

-           discussion of papers and materials during practical part of the lecture  

Lectures: topics are listed below.    

Reading and discussions: For each lecture, students receive material to study (paper, video etc) and a set of tasks/questions; the material relates to the topic of the given lecture. During the practicals, we will discuss, argue, defend the material and questions.  

Home work will be done inside the Perusall environment.      

Lecture topics

Introduction 23.2.

(VZ): History of developmental biology, green lineage evolution ,sporophyte gametophyte, 3D shape.

(MF) Plants differ from us, animals. Plant multicellularity, cell wall, plasmodesmata, plant shape generation and maintenance.

Practicals: practical info, intro to lecture structure and homeworks  

Embryogenesis, root meristems 2.3. (MF)

Embryo, polarity, differentiation of tissues. Radial patterning of the roots, lateral roots    

Planar polarity 9.3. (MF)

Stomata, asymmetric cell division, polarity, trichomes, root hairs  

Shoot apical meristem 16.3. (VZ)

Wuschel-clavata, organogenesis, auxin maxima, leaves, lateral buds, internodia  

Flower 23.3. (VZ)

Flowering, florigen, ABCED model  

Vasculature I 30.3. (Adriana Jelinkova)

Vasculature formation in the embryo (genes, mutants), vasculature development in the root   7.    Vasculature II – 6. 4. (Adriana Jelinkova)

Vasculature polarity (in relation to leaf polarity adax, abax), role in the plant body formation   8.    Leaf development – 13.4. (VZ)

Evolution of the leaf, leaf dorsoventrality, small RNA in plant development   9.    Photomorphogenesis 20.4. (VZ)

Light as the morphogenic signal, light receptors, COP complex, photoperiod, vernalization.     10.  Phyllotaxis and shoot branching 27.4. (MF)

Fibonacci spiral, inhibitory field, auxin mutants, mechanical feedback, apical dominance, strigolactones.    

Gamethophyte development 4.5. (VZ)

Regulation of sexual reproduction, gametophytes, double fertilization, self incompatibility.    

Death in development, seed 11.5. (MF)

Double fertilization, synergids, endosperm. PCD in plant development.    

Annotation

A dominant perspective of this course is molecular and cellular process operating during plant development as analysed by developmental genetics and molecular biology.Important topic is the regulation of gene expression during plant development. The model here is mainly Arabidopsis thaliana with the genome sequenced and functional genomics projects intensively running.

In order to draw general conclusions about the logic of plant development other model plants and experimental approaches will be integrated.