TEACHING
Our teaching program expands the Horticultural Science Department’s offerings and cover root and rhizosphere ecology, advanced horticultural physiology, and specific summer courses on root structure and function.
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HOS6355 – Root and Rhizosphere Ecology
The aim of this course is to provide a complete view of the rhizosphere and its unique functioning that implies numerous strong and complex interactions among plant roots, soil constituents, and microorganisms. Furthermore, the course not only aims to address current knowledge and achievements but also outlines the future challenges that confront rhizosphere studies. Topics incorporate how roots and the rhizosphere respond to different environments, including multiple interactions among soils, plant roots, microbes, mycorrhizae, and fauna, soil heterogeneity, biogeochemical cycles, abiotic stresses, and emerging contaminants.
Course prerequisites:
BOT2010 or BSC2010
Knowledge prerequisites:
This is an advanced course that examines the interactions between the plant root apparatus and the environment. To be successful in this course, students should have a general knowledge of biology, botany, microbiology, and soil chemistry.
Course objectives:
- To critically appraise the current literature on root and rhizosphere biology and ecology and to present and discuss recent plant root science articles in the form of a journal club.
- To develop an understanding of unique biochemical processes in roots and the rhizosphere.
- To discuss modern research techniques for field and lab studies on plant roots.
- To promote the integration of different disciplines, such as plant physiology, biochemistry, natural product chemistry, molecular biology, genomics and, chemical ecology, to study root and rhizosphere processes.
- To raise awareness about environmental concerns which affect roots (e.g., the interaction between plant roots and heavy metals, engineered nanoparticles, emerging pathogens, etc.).
Learning objectives:
- After successful completion of this course, students will be able to:
- Identify the role of plant roots in the global context of soil development and atmosphere composition.
- Classify and recognize root-derived products.
- Compare different root system architectures.
- Describe root responses to biotic and abiotic stresses.
- Explain key root-rhizosphere interactions, from beneficial microorganisms to detrimental nematodes.
- Recommend modern research techniques for field and lab studies on plant roots.
- Locate, appraise, and assimilate evidence from scientific studies related to plant root science.
Flyer:
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Summer Course: Linking Root Structure to Function
This is a summer course for graduate students. The central focus of this course will include an exploration of new techniques that couple studies of root system architecture and function, hands-on experience with some of these techniques, and the new approaches to delve deeper into the analysis of the resulting data, from modeling to machine learning techniques.
Specific topics will include:
- Defining root structure (cellular, organ), architecture, and function –
- Arriving at a common set of definitions used throughout the course
- Methods Overview – imaging, sensing
- What are the limitations of each approach – practical vs. theoretical? Controlled conditions vs. field
- What are the scales at which particular methods are appropriate? Whole plant to cellular, molecular
- What questions are addressed most appropriately in each approach?
- What are the approaches that can most effectively integrate across structure, architecture, and function to arrive at a mechanistic understanding of the process?
- Resulting Data
- What sorts of data are produced in a given approach?
- What are the techniques (current and in development) available for analyzing this data?
- Benefits and pitfalls of modeling – when does it hold up and when does it fail?
- Note: we will have a hands-on data set to illustrate the application of modeling vs. machine learning approaches.
- Sensing environmental impacts on function
- Microorganisms and their interactions with root systems (mycorrhizas, PGPR, rhizobia-symbiosis)
- Root-root interactions (allelopathy)
- Coupling environmental sensing to infer root structure and function
- The next step – identifying adapted phenotypes
- Breeding approaches utilizing knowledge of architecture and function
- Molecular approaches
Flyer:
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HOS4341/HOS6932 – Advanced Horticultural Physiology
This is a whole-plant physiology course for undergraduate students covering vegetative and reproductive biology and environmental effects on plant growth and development.
Course prerequisites:
HOS4304 or BOT3503
Knowledge prerequisites:
This is an advanced course which examines the interactions between plant physiology the environment. To be successful, students should have a general knowledge of biology, botany, microbiology, and soil chemistry.
Learning objectives:
- After successful completion of this course, students will be able to:
- Explain environmental influences on plant growth and development
- Describe the relationship between basic physiological processes and the environment
- Gain an appreciation for the structure and function of the whole plant.
Flyer:
