Unit PLANT PHISYSIOLOGY
- Course
- Agricultural and environmental sciences
- Study-unit Code
- 80028006
- Curriculum
- Agricoltura sostenibile
- Teacher
- Giuseppe Frenguelli
- Teachers
-
- Giuseppe Frenguelli
- Hours
- 60 ore - Giuseppe Frenguelli
- CFU
- 6
- Course Regulation
- Coorte 2016
- Offered
- 2017/18
- Learning activities
- Base
- Area
- Discipline biologiche
- Sector
- BIO/03
- Type of study-unit
- Obbligatorio (Required)
- Type of learning activities
- Attività formativa monodisciplinare
- Language of instruction
- Italian
- Contents
- Essential features of plant cell activity and principal physiological processes of higher plants.
- Reference texts
- 1. Fisiologia vegetale. Hopkins W.G., Hünter P.A. McGraw-Hill, Milano, 2008
2. Fisiologia vegetale. Taiz L., Zeiger E. Piccin, Padova, 2009. - Educational objectives
- The Course aims to provide students with essential knowledge of fundamental physiological processes in higher plants, both at microscopic and macroscopic level, and their coordination and control. To learn about the relationships between plant physiology and inputs from agriculture practices, upon both cultivation standards and abiotic limiting conditions.
Main knowledge acquired will be:
- fundamentals of bioenergetics;
- fundamentals of biological membranes;
- plant cells and water; whole plant water relations;
- mineral uptake, transport and assimilation;
- photosynthesis, allocation, translocation and partitioning of photoassimilates;
- the plant hormones: biochemistry, metabolism and control of development;
- photomorphogenesis, photoperiodism and floral induction;
- temperature: plant development and distribution.
Ability to apply knowledge and skills:
- ability to interpet aspects of plant development to streamline crop production;
- ability to interpret relationships between environmental factors and plant suggesting vegetation and crop choices;
- ability to acquire skills that will allow student to tackle application problems in the field of crop physiology;
- acquisition of conscious judgment independence with regard to experimental data evaluation and interpretation;
- ability to acquire the adequate basic cognitive instruments for continuously updating their knowledge. - Prerequisites
- In order to be able to understand and apply the majority of the physiological topics treated, the student must have successfully passed the Fundamental Botany and Chemistry exames. Moreover, the ability to solve simple numerical calculations and, above all, knowledge of basic biology are required; for this purpose, to follow this couse with profit, it is recommended to have successfully passed all the first-year courses such as Systematic botany and geobotany, and Genetics and plant breeding.
- Teaching methods
- The Course is organized as follow: lectures on all subjects of the course as reported in the program, exercises on some subjects treated with the solution of simple questions and tests with multiple choice test or open-ended question, discussion of case studies recently published in scientific journals.
- Other information
- Availability of educational material in UniStudium platform.
Consulting hours: each Thuersday from 9.30 to 11.30 or by appointment via email:giuseppe.frenguelli@unipg.it - Learning verification modality
- The exam consists of an oral text of about 30-40 minutes long aiming to ascertain the knowledge level and understanding capability acquired by student on contents as indicated on the program. The questions will focus on both the fundamental physiological processes in higher plants and the plant strategies to respond to endogenous and exogenous inputs which control the growth.
The oral exam will also test the student communication skills and his autonomy in the organization and exposure of the theoretical topics. - Extended program
- 1. The plant cell, physiology of biological membranes, basic principles of bioenergetics.
2. Whole plant water relations.
3. Plants and inorganic nutrients.
4. Nutrient uptake and ion movements.
5. Energy conservation in photosynthesis: harvesting sunlight.
6. Energy conservation in photosynthesis: CO2 assimilation.
7. Allocation, translocation and partitioning of photoassimilates.
8. Cellular respiration.
9. Nitrogen assimilation.
10. Carbon assimilation and productivity.
11. Patterns in plant development.
12. The plant hormones: biochemistry and metabolism, control of development.
13. Photomorphogenesis: responding to light.
14. Plant movements - orientation in space: phototropism, gravitropism, nastic movements.
15. Measuring times: the control of development by photoperiod and endogenous clocks, photoperiodism, floral induction.
15. Temperature: plant development and distribution.