Plants as biofactories

A.A. 2024/2025
6
Crediti massimi
56
Ore totali
SSD
AGR/07
Lingua
Inglese
Obiettivi formativi
To acquire the knowledge necessary to apply the biotechniques to the metabolic engineering of plants; to develop base competencies on the management of scientific projects in the agro-sciences fields.
Risultati apprendimento attesi
The student will develop the capability to plan and implement biotechnological experiments for the exploitation of plants in metabolic engineering related projects. The range of possible projects will span from vaccines production to metabolic pathways modification.
Corso singolo

Questo insegnamento può essere seguito come corso singolo.

Programma e organizzazione didattica

Edizione unica

Responsabile
Periodo
Secondo semestre

Programma
Plant genetic variability: from plant domestication to biotech; the biotechnologist as a trait-d'union between plant genetic improvement, "omics" sciences and the follow-up of the green revolution. (0.5 CFU)
Metabolic engineering (ME): aims, scope and pitfalls; molecular techniques used in ME; metabolic partitioning and ME; ME targets. Hints of ME business. (1 CFU)
Engineering yield: modifying photosynthesis; engineering lignin and biomass. (0.5 CFU)
Engineering the response to climate change: biotech strategies for climate change challenges. (0.5 CFU)
Engineering with CRISPR: an introduction to the CRISPR world. (1 CFU)
Plant molecular Pharming (PMF): the plant system and optimization; methods used in PMF; PMF examples (antibodies, vaccines, VLPs, other pharmaceutical proteins). Hints of PMF business. (0.5 CFU)
Workshop (1 CFU)
Depending on the interaction with the students, the program may be slightly different.
Prerequisiti
PLEASE CHECK THE SYLLABUS OF THE COURSE ON THE MyAriel PAGE!!!!!
Your capacity to attend and understand the course will be greatly facilitated if you'll master the following topics:
-biochemistry and plant physiology.
-genomics (see course Methods in Biotechnology)
-genetics and plant breeding.
More in details: BIOCHEMISTRY AND PHYSIOLOGY
-water physiology and molecular biology in the plant and its transport (i.e. water potential etc.)
-plant tolerance to stresses (abiotic and biotic)
-signal transduction and signaling cascades-fundamentals in primary and secondary metabolism
-fundamentals in cell trafficking
GENETICS & GENOMICS
-molecular maps and their use in mapping traits of biotech interest
-candidate gene strategies -forward and reverse genetics
-gene silencing and applications -basics in mapping, including QTL mapping PROTEOMICS
-post-translational control of proteins: glycosylation and other protein modifications
MOLECULAR BIOLOGY
-cloning techniques
-vectors and constructs
-transcription factors: molecular structure and cellular functions
Metodi didattici
Lectures; active learning; interactive didactic workshops; didactic trip
Materiale di riferimento
Pdf files of the lectures, available on MyAriel platform; papers and textbooks (provided by the teacher and made available on MyAriel), additional online resources made available through the slides.
Modalità di verifica dell’apprendimento e criteri di valutazione
The student is offered to take the exam in an oral or written form. In order to facilitate the student, the exam calls can be agreed with the teacher. In general, the written exam requires at least 4 enrolled students. It is composed of 6 questions (open and closed) and lasts for 2 hours. The oral exam is composed of 6 questions (during 30 minutes), the first of which is a choice of the student. Students are evaluated based on the knowledge of the tested topics, their capacity of conducting a roughly 5-minutes exposition on each topic, their capacity of connecting topics in an organic overall picture of the scientific field.
AGR/07 - GENETICA AGRARIA - CFU: 6
Esercitazioni in aula informatica: 16 ore
Lezioni: 40 ore
Turni:
Turno
Docente: Pozzi Carlo Massimo
Docente/i
Ricevimento:
Su appuntamento / upon request
Office - building 21010