Course Description
The importance of plant diversity and the ways it is conserved and utilized, including ex situ conservation, molecular tools, and the use of genetic resources in agriculture, conservation, and the pharmaceutical industry.
Athena Title
CONS PLANT GEN RES
Prerequisite
GENE(BIOL) 3000 or permission of department
Semester Course Offered
Offered spring
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
1. improve one's understanding of the conservation and utilization of plant genetic resources; 2. clarify the role of molecular techniques in analyzing and exploiting diversity; 3. elucidate the use of genetic resources in plant breeding, the pharmaceutical industry and other areas of scientific research; 4. create awareness of the controversies involved in intellectual property rights applied to plant genetic resources; 5. develop one's communication skills through class discussions; 6. improve one's ability to critically read and interpret scientific literature.
Topical Outline
1. Plant Conservation Genetics: Importance, Options, and Opportunities 1.1. Introduction 1.2. Importance of Plants in Life 1.3. Role of Genetics 1.4. Options and Strategies for Plant Conservation 1.5. Opportunities for Application of Plant Conservation Genetics 1.6. Overview of Plant Conservation Genetics 2. Strategies for in Situ Conservation 2.1. Introduction 2.2. Identification of Ecosystems to Be Conserved 2.3. Relationships with the Local Population 2.4. Protection Legislation 2.5. Monitoring 2.6. Maintaining the Ecosystem 2.7. A Management Plan 2.8. Conclusion 3. Impact of Habitat Fragmentation on Plant Populations 3.1. Introduction 3.2. Consequences of Habitat Fragmentation: Genetic Hazards Small, Isolated Populations Face 3.3. Conclusion: Developing Informative Habitat Fragmentation Research 4. Techniques for ex Situ Plant Conservation 4.1. Introduction 4.2. Historical Context 4.3. Seed and Ultra-Dry Seed Storage 4.4. Botanic Garden Conservation 4.5. DNA Storage 4.6. Field Gene Banks 4.7. In Vitro Techniques 4.8. Pollen Storage 4.9. Germplasm Collection and Management 4.10. Core Collections 4.11. Complementary Conservation 5. Strategies Employed to Collect Plant Genetic Resources for ex Situ Conservation 5.1. Introduction 5.2. Planning Your Collecting Mission 5.3. Data and Seed Collection 5.4. Postcollection Activities and Seed Processing for ex Situ Conservation 5.5. Recent Collecting by the Australian Tropical Crops and Forages Collection 5.6. Concluding Remarks 6. The Role of Genetic Resources Held in Seed Banks in Plant Improvement 6.1. Introduction 6.2. New Alleles on Wx Genes Found in Local Wheat Cultivars 6.3. Null Allele of Lipoxygenase-3 from Rice Local Cultivars Using Core Collection 6.4. Characterizing Natural Genes Controlling the Heading of Rice by QTL Analysis Discovery of the Gene Controlling Seed Longevity of Rice 6.5. Effective Management of the Stock Database by Seed Lot Unit 6.6. Conservation and Multiplication of Plant Genetic Resources in the Country of Origin 6.7. Evaluation Database for Heterogeneous Plant Genetic Resources 6.8. Conclusion 7. Botanic Gardens and Conservation 7.1. Introduction 7.2. Critical Factors in Using Botanic Gardens for Conservation Science 7.3. Who Has What Species? 7.4. Acknowledgment and Promotion of ex Situ Collections 7.5. Property Rights, Access, and Benefit Sharing 8. Conservation of Plant Genes and the Role of DNA Banks 8.1. Introduction 8.2. Conservation of Plant Biodiversity 8.3. Ex Situ Collections 8.4. How Do We Define a DNA Bank? 8.5. Database and Sample Management 8.6. Collection Strategies 8.7. DNA Extraction and Storage 8.8. Constraints for ex Situ Collections and DNA Banks 8.9. Concluding Remarks 9. Molecular Analysis of Plant Genetic Resources 9.1. Rationale for Molecular Analysis of Plant Genetic Resources 9.2. Molecular Marker Techniques Available for the Analysis of Plant Genetic Resources 9.3. Trends in the Use of Molecular Markers 9.4. Levels of Polymorphism and Congruence of Different Types of Molecular Data 9.5. Molecular Marker Analysis of Collections of Plant Genetic Resources 9.6. Toward Universal or Standardized Marker Data Sets for Plant Germplasm 9.7. A New Paradigm: A DNA Sequence Is Forever! 9.8. Conclusion 10. Analysis of Nuclear, Mitochondrial, and Chloroplast Genomes in Plant Conservation 10.1. Introduction 10.2. Analysis of Nuclear Genomes 10.3. Comparative Analysis of the Genomes of Plants 10.4. Analysis of the Mitochondrial Genome 10.5. Analysis of the Chloroplast Genome 10.6. Concluding Remarks 11. Genomics and Plant Biodiversity Management 11.1. Introduction 11.2. Variation in Sizes of Genomes 11.3. Number of Genes 11.4. Ploidy and Gene Duplication 11.5. Repetitive Elements 11.6. Comparative Genomics 11.7. Base Composition and Codon Usage 11.8. Understanding the Evolution of Plant Genomes 11.9. Opportunities 11.10. Applications to Date 11.11. Challenges for the Future
Syllabus