- Credit Points
- 15
- Course Coordinator
- Dr A Price
Pre-requisites
An appropriate level 2 Biology course. Other students may be admitted with permission of Head of School.
Overview
Introduction - Methods of plant breeding and their genetic basis, potential and limitations - contribution to crop yield, quality improvements; Breeding objectives - schemes and systems, crop evaluation and evolution; new technologies and genome mapping, gene sequences, arrays and mutations. Biotechnology and its application to Agriculture; Vector systems in plants - Ti plasmid; Modification of Ti - plasmid for expression of foreign genes; GM crops and specific targets in crop plants - cereal crops, photosynthesis; Plant Cell Culture - secondary metabolites. Generating new varations - somaclonal and protoplast culture, fusion; Improving Biological Nitrogen fixation; Biocontrol - Crop Production and Protection; GEMs, GM crops-release and risk assessment.
A Practical to provide experiance in genome sequence database analysis will be carried out and a practical report must be submitted and will count as in-course assessment.
Structure
Thread II: 1 two-hour written examination 6 week course – no more than 8 hours of teaching per week, Slots B and C. Weeks 18-23.
Assessment
1st Attempt: Written Paper (67%), in-course assessment: essay, seminar, data analysis exercise and practical (33%).
Resit: Written Paper (67%), in-course assessment: essay, seminar, data analysis exercise and practical (33%).