Molecular Biology and Physiology of Plants and Microbes
Full course description
This mandatory course aims to introduce students with limited biological background into
the biology of plants and microbes. A deepened understanding of the molecular
mechanisms underlying the growth, metabolism and reproduction of plants and microbes
is the main aim of this course.
Most biobased materials are of plant origin, and therefore students should expand their
knowledge of plants and plant products. The molecular biology of microbes will concentrate
on the basic principles underlying their growth and manipulation for industrial-relevant
processes. In addition to studying the metabolic routes leading to natural materials, the
possibility of exploiting genetically modified organisms for biobased materials or building
blocks production will also be introduced.
Course objectives
This course combines molecular biology and physiology of plants and microbes. It aims at
making students aware of the functioning and differences in their structure, growth and
reproduction, and their implication in the formation and production of biobased materials.
At the end of the course students can:
1) Describe the structure and organization of bacterial, yeast and plant cells; identify
the main subcellular components of each cell type and explain their function.
2) Illustrate and compare the basic gene structure, organization and expression in
plants and microbes, describe the main differences and explain how they influence
their practical use for the production of biobased materials.
3) Explain the concepts of growth for unicellular and multicellular organisms, illustrate
how these can be influenced and manipulated and predict the outcome of such
manipulation.
4) Transfer the knowledge acquired during the lectures to new biobased materialsrelated
topics and propose alternative ways to improve the production process or
the material itself.
5) Perform a molecular biology experiment following a protocol, describe the principles
behind the techniques used and propose adaptations of the experimental
procedures in case of unexpected events.
6) Critically analyse scientific publications, extract the relevant information and
communicate it in a clear and concise way.
Recommended reading
There are several text books that could be useful for this course. However, these books
are often very specific and detailed, and do not cover all the topics of the course and/or
contain a large amount of information we will not be able to cover in this course.
Additionally, in this course we will make use of review and research articles. The lectures
and your notes are the most valuable resources for information. Finally, searching for
academic publications (e.g. via Pubmed at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/) will
be required to obtain all the necessary information for the tutorial tasks.
Suggested literature:
- Campbell Biology. Ninth edition. ISBN 10: 0321558235; ISBN 13:
9780321558237
- Molecular biology of the cell. Bruce Alberts and Alexander D. Johnson. ISBN-13:
978-0815344322
- Plant physiology. Lincoln Taiz, Eduardo Zeiger. ISBN-13: 978-0878938667
- Microbiology: An Introduction, Gerard J Tortora, Berdell R Funke, Christine L Case.
ISBN-13: 978-1292099149
Specific literature for specific assignments will be provided by the coordinator during the
course.