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Online-Course 'Plant Response to Stress'

Why a Course about 'Plant Response to Stress'?

In the field of plant science, it is important to know how plants - as sensitive organisms which cannot run away from unfavorable environmental conditions - can react to an ever-changing environment. Over the past decade, our understanding of plant adaptations to environmental stress has grown considerably. This course aims to outline the most recent findings on this subject, focusing on different fields of plant sciences: molecular biology, plant physiology, and ecology.

Examination: Written assignments

Overview on Contents

Lesson 1: The Stress Concept in Biology
Christian Körner, Botanical Institute, University Basel, Switzerland

Stress and the wider theme it belongs to, 'limitation', are possibly the most widely used terms in the study of plant environment interactions from molecular to ecosystem level. This lesson will introduce the appropriate terminology and will explain different categories of plant responses to stress.

Lesson 2: Stress at the Cellular Level - Responses to Oxidative Stress
Klaus Apel, Institute of Plant Sciences, Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, Switzerland

Excessive light can lead to oxidative stress. Plants can avoid oxidative stress through a number of physiological regulations at the molecular level. As a by-product of these mechanisms, reactive oxygen species (ROS) are generated. They have to be mitigated, so that they do not damage the plant cell.

Lesson 3: Stress Responses at the Cellular and Molecular Level: Gene Regulation and Gene Expression after Drought and Temperature Stress
Sacha Baginsky, Institute of Plant Sciences, Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, Switzerland & Melanie Paschke, Zurich-Basel Plant Science Center

The phases of gene expression and their regulation after stress and limitation are discussed. The different regulatory levels of gene expression include transcriptional regulation, translational regulation, and post-translational modification.

Lesson 4: Stress Responses from the Cellular to the Whole-Plant Level: Responses to Drought
Enrico Martinoia & Felix Keller, Institute of Plant Biology, University Zurich, & Nikolaus Amrhein, Institute of Plant Sciences, Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, Switzerland & Melanie Paschke, Zurich-Basel Plant Science Center

In this lesson, we will look at different plant responses to drought at the whole-plant level: Stress hormones are released, stomata close, morphological and ontogenetic adaptations are induced.

Lesson 5: Stress at the Population Level: Responses to Drought and Density Stress
Bernhard Schmid, Institute of Environmental Sciences, University Zurich & Melanie Paschke, Zurich-Basel Plant Science Center

Plant populations react to stress in a stepwise process: first by physiological and morphological modifications of plant individuals within a population (phenotypic variation), then by evolutionary adaptation of the population as a whole. This evolutionary adaptation leads to differences (genetic variation) between populations.

Lesson 6: Plant Stress at the Community Level: Responses to Biotic Factors Causing Plant Stress
Christine Müller, Institute of Environmental Sciences, University Zurich & Melanie Paschke, Zurich-Basel Plant Science Center

Plants are part of communities. They interact with other species. These biotic interactions can cause stress to plants. Neighbors or interacting organisms can enhance or mitigate stress for a plant within the community: Plants can even use interactions with other organism for modificative responses after a stress signal and the stress a plant experiences can be passed on to other organisms within the community.

Lesson 7: Stress Implications at the Ecosystem Level: Responses to Drought
Nina Buchmann, Institute of Plant Sciences, Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, Switzerland & Melanie Paschke, Zurich-Basel Plant Science Center

This lesson explores how plant stress translates into ecosystem level responses. It is described how entire ecosystems change when water becomes scarce and temperatures rise due to global climate change.

Lesson 8: Methods in Plant Stress Research
Werner Eugster & Roland Werner & Sacha Baginsky, Institute of Plant Sciences, Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, Switzerland, & Enrico Martinoia, Institute of Plant Biology, University Zurich

This lesson consists of four topics each of which is composed of a film about several laboratory techniques used in plant stress research. In the films, you will see authentic examples of the techniques applied. Each film is followed by animations and exercises so that you will be able to understand the principles behind the methods.

  • Topic 1: Phytoextraction - Development of Heavy-metal Tolerant Transgenic Plants with the Methods of Genomics
  • Topic 2: Proteomics
  • Topic 3: Pathogen - Recognition and Response
  • Topic 4: Carbon Fluxes and Drought Effects

Link: http://www.plantscience.ethz.ch/education/Masters/courses/Integrative_Plant_Sciences/online_course

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