Molecular and Cellular Biology of Plants, Spring 2008

The course focuses broadly on molecular and cellular aspects of plant growth, development and response to biological and environmental stresses. The course instructor is John Harada, professor of plant biology. In this course, he concentrates on selected topics to emphasize specific concepts rather than providing an overview of the field. A major objective is to explore the statement, “Differential gene activity underlies cellular and organismal function.” The information is presented to explain the basis for differentially gene expression and how regulated gene activities affect cellular and organismal functions. There is a strong emphasis on the interpretation of experimental data. The information comes through discussions of results obtained from studies using the experimental approaches of molecular biology, genetics, genomics, cell biology and biochemistry. The course is targeted to upper division students who have taken an introductory biology course and a genetics course. Although the focus is on plants, the overwhelming majority of students in the class are general biology majors who do not specialize in plants.