Course outline for Developmental Plant Biology

(PLNT4550) –Winter 2010

Instructor: Dr. Claudio Stasolla

Room 315 Agriculture Building

Tel. 474-6098

E.mail: stasolla@ms.umanitoba.ca

Office hours: You can drop to my office any time. However, for your convenience, it is better to arrange an appointment by e-mail or telephone.

Lab Demonstrators: Mohamed Soil

OBJECTIVES: The course focuses on the mechanisms regulating morphogenesis and plant growth and development. Emphasis will be on experimental approaches used to investigate pattern formation at subcellular, cellular, tissue, and organ levels. A heavy tissue culture component in the lab will implement the lecture topics and will provide new insights into ways to study plant development in vitro.

LECTURE OUTLINE

- The plant cell

A. Regulation of cell division and differentiation

B. Acquisition of polarity

C. Cell-cell communication

- An introduction to plant development

A. Morphogenesis: shaping the organism

B. Experimental approaches to study plant development

- Microsurgery

- In vitro studies: a brief history of tissue culture

-Mutant analysis

_ Embryogenesis: beginning of development

A. Patterns of embryo development

B. Factors affecting embryo growth: the physical environment

C. Analytical and experimental studies of embryo development

_ Primary growth and organogenesis

A. Patterns of shoot apical meristem development

-Experimental investigations on the shoot apex (apical autonomy, cellular integration in the shoot)

B. Organogenesis in the shoot

-Leaf morphogenesis and position (analysis of leaf development and determination of phyllotaxy)

-Determination of leaves (dorsoventrality, branching)

-Later stages of leaf development

C. Patterns of root apical development

-Experimental investigation of root development (microsurgery and laser ablation studies)

_ Secondary growth

A. Formation of the vascular cambium

B. Experimental studies on the cambium

-cambial initiation

-cambium culture

-physical environment and cambium activity

_ Extreme examples of cell differentiation: programmed cell death (PCD)

A.The phloem sieve elements

B.Tracheary element differentiation

C. Experimental approaches to study PCD (in vitro transdifferentiation)

LAB OUTLINE

The aim of the lab is to demonstrate how morphogenesis can be altered through simple manipulations of the physical and chemical environment. Each student is expected to carry out simple tissue culture projects which will involve media preparation, sub-culturing of tissue under sterile conditions, and regeneration via organogenesis and somatic embryogenesis. The effects of different media composition on morphogenesis and plant regeneration will be evaluated.

EVALUATION

Lab reports 20%

Oral presentations 30%

Midterm 20%

Final exam 30%

Evaluative feedback from the first assignment and midterm examination will be provided prior to the deadline for voluntary withdrawal (March 19th, 2010).

REQUIRED TEXTBOOKS

Steeves TA, and Sussex IM (1989) Patterns in Plant Development (Second Edition). Cambridge University Press.

A word from our lawyers:

Students are reminded that they have an obligation to act in a fair and reasonable manner towards their peers, the faculty, staff, administration and the physical property of the university, and that plagiarism, cheating and impersonation of others in examinations are serious offences and will be handled according to Policies and Guidelines of the University of Manitoba, Section 2: Student Discipline Bylaw (see the 2009-2010 University of Manitoba Undergraduate Calendar).