ABT 811

ABT 811         Applied Plant Biotechnology             (3 Units)

 

Plant transformation, bioreactors; cryopreservation; double haploids; microsporogenesis;  megasporogenesis; enhancement of in vitro culture response; enhancement of parthenogenesis; enhancement of genetic transformation; synthetic seeds; in vitro selection; Molecular marker techniques: Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD), Single Sequence Repeats (SSRs), Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism (AFLP), Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (RFLP), Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP); emerging issues in biotechnology


ABT 820

ABT 820         Plant breeding I         (3 units)

 

Introduction and overview.  Biodiversity and genetic resources. Modes of reproduction. Breeding vegetatively propagated, self- and cross-pollinated crops: genetic basis; Methodologies. Breeding for resistance: vertical and horizontal resistance. Breeding for pest resistance. Tissue culture techniques in plant breeding. Polyploidy in plant breeding. Wide hybridization in crop improvement. Mutation techniques in breeding. Biotechnology in plant breeding. Variety development, release and maintenance, Plant variety protection (PVP) and intellectual property rights. Current issues. Capita selecta.


CRS 800

CRS  800        Environmental Crop Physiology (3 units)

 

The environment, crop production and physiological processes.  Energy flux and exchange.  Canopy and leaf responses to radiant energy, wind, temperature and water vapour.  Transpiration.  Potential evapotranspiration.  Soil-water-plant relations.  Measurements of environmental factors.  Crop-site interaction and response to variations in environmental factors. Adaptation to biotic and abiotic factors.  Photosynthesis, bio-productivity and growth analysis.  Internal factors of crop development and senescence.


CRS 815

CRS 815         Advanced Plant Pathology     (3 units)

Objectives

 

Course content

Causative agents: fungal, bacterial and viral diseases. Population dynamics and ecology of plant pathogens. Interactions between higher plants, pathogens and the environment. Disease epidemiology, assessment and forecasting. Principles and methods used for the control of plant diseases.  Application of epidemiological principles, biological (including host resistance) and chemical strategies to achieve disease control. Host-plant nutrition. Soil-borne pathogens and soil pollutants

 


CRS 862

CRS 862         Statistical methods, Field experimentation

and Computer application I             (3 units)

 

Introduction and overview.  Comparison of populations and samples: variables, graphs and frequency distributions, measures of central tendency and dispersion, commonly used distributions, statistical estimation and decision theory.  Computer Applications and analysis of experimental data: completely randomized designs, randomised complete block designs, lattice designs, latin square designs and split-plot experiments.  Common, practical and modern research techniques: planning, desk research, project proposals, presentation and discussion.         


CRS 864

CRS 864         Principles of Crop Modelling          (2 units)

 

Introduction; Plant growth functions; Temperature effects on plant and crop processes. Light relationships in canopies. Plant development partitioning during vegetative growth. Crop-water relations. Crop responses. Crop models.