PLANT-MICROBE INTERACTIONS: MOLECULAR AND ECOLOGICAL ASPECTS

PLPATH 315

Explore plant associated microbial communities (the plant microbiome), methods used to study them, and how we can use them to improve plant and ecosystem health in the face of challenges to agricultural and natural systems. Examples will be drawn from annual crop, grassland, and forested ecosystems. Use current molecular, bioinformatic, and statistical approaches to characterize rhizosphere microbiomes from samples collected as part of on-going research projects.

BOTANY/ENTOM/ZOOLOGY 473

Multiple ways in which arthropods exploit plants, plant traits that deter or augment insects, environmental mediation of these interactions, effects on population dynamics, community ecology and co-evolution, and implications to natural resource management, environmental quality, and sustainable development.

BOTANY 100

Major emphasis on the roles of plants and microbes in past and present global ecology, and the past and present uses of plants and microbes by humans, including emerging applications of biotechnology.

PLPATH 622

Physiology, genetics, taxonomy, and ecology of bacterial pathogens, epiphytes, and symbionts of plants.

BOTANY/PLPATH 123

Explores the interaction between society and plant-associated microbes. Topics include: the Irish potato famine, pesticides in current agriculture, role of economics and consumer preference in crop disease management and the release of genetically engineered organisms.