20542 Plant Genetic Engineering
Credits: 3 advanced seminar credits in Life Sciences
Prerequisites: 36 credits in the Sciences, including Plants and Vegetation, Biochemistry I, Cell Structure and Function (single-semester format or year-long format) and Genetics.1 Students must also fulfill all English requirements and take bibliographic instruction in the Library.
Recommended: Plant Physiology, The World of Bacteria
The course is based on a reader edited by Yehiam Salts.
This course acquaints the student with plant cellular and molecular genetics, and its applications to agriculture. Students study the tools currently used for genetic engineering in plants, scientific research underlying these tools and the application of this knowledge for transmitting genetic information of agricultural value from the test tube to the plant, and from there to the field.
Topics: Tissue cultures; regeneration of plants; methods for introducing genes into plants; the structure and mapping principles of the plant genome; the isolation and characterization of its genes.
After studying the material, students write a seminar paper that demonstrates how the principles of genetic engineering are applied to plant melioration in agriculture.
1or the previous version of the course, From Mendelism to Genetic Engineering.