Plant Tissue Culture and Biotechnology

Catalog description

The overall goal of this course is to provide a strong overview of the techniques used in plant biotechnology and the applications made possible by those techniques. The lecture topics will be used to introduce the principles of tissue culture and molecular biology, including how they are used to produce transgenic plants. Furthermore, the course will give students a broader and deeper knowledge in the field of Plant Biotechnology and provide a foundation for understanding the field as it changes in the future. Topics include the safety, legal and ethical issues surrounding GMOs and the study of the anti-GMO arguments surrounding each issue. In the laboratory component of the course, students will be introduced to the underlying principles of molecular biology techniques and aseptic culture of plant cells as well as the tissues and organs used to produce transgenic plants. In summary, through this course students will be introduced to many of the most important tools of the biotechnologist.