- Course Code
- BI 20P1
- Credit Points
- 15
- Course Coordinator
- Dr C C Wilcock
Pre-requisites
Overview
Plants dominate our landscape, and our lives, as they have done throughout our history. This is largely due to their diversity as a result of their remarkable ability to adapt to life in a changing environment and, more recently, to man. This course reviews the origins and extent of this diversity and illustrates how molecular approaches give insights into the nature and causes of plant diversity. The major groups are covered: bryophytes, ferns and their allies, gymnosperms and flowering plants. The course highlights the distinguishing features of each group of plant and analyses how their diversity may have arisen. The origin and domestication of food plants is outlined with special attention to the role of man in the breeding of wheat, barley and rice and to the more recent novel methods of generating plant diversity by genetic modification. The importance of fungi is discussed, with emphasis on their nutritional strategies, both as important plant pathogens and symbionts, and decomposers. The practical sessions illustrate a wide diversity of plants and fungi and the techniques used to investigate them.
Structure
12 weeks - 3 one-hour lectures and 1 three-hour laboratory session per week.
To pass this course, a pass must be achieved in BOTH the theory exam and the in-course assessment.
Assessment
1st Attempt: 1 two-hour examination (75%) and in-course assessment (25%).
Resit: 1 two-hour written exam for all candidates and a 1 hour exam on in-course material for those who failed this assessment.