Course Descriptions

Below are descriptions of all courses offered through various departments and a part of the Plant Breeding & Plant Genetics curriculum. For an outline of PBPG course of study requirements please see our Program Requirements page.

Horticulture/Agronomy 501-Principles of Plant Breeding:
3cr. Principles involved in breeding and maintaining economic crops; factors affecting the choice of breeding methods; alternative approaches through hybridization and selection. P: Intro course in genetics, 1 yr. Biology.

Horticulture/Agronomy 502-Techniques of Plant Breeding:
1 cr. Lab and field techniques used in breeding and maintaining economic crops. An intro course in genetics and 1 yr. Biology.

Forestry 640-Forest Tree Genetics:
2 cr. Genetics, evolution, and improvement of forest trees; physiology and anatomy of trees, population structure, selection procedures and breeding strategies, as well as selected case studies of tree improvement programs. P: Intro course in genetics.

Agronomy/Horticulture 850: Advanced Plant Breeding:
3 cr. Concepts in improvement of major crop species; historically important breeding methods and new approaches; Lectures and discussion. Agron/Hort 338 or 501 or cons inst.

Horticulture/Agronomy 561-Introductory Cytogenetics:
2-3 cr. Mitosis, meiosis, variations in chromosome structure and number, cytological aspects of hybridity and apomixes; chromosomes as they affect breeding behavior. P: Genetics, Botany, Zoology 466 or cons. inst.

Genetics 631-Plant Genetics:
3 cr. Problems related to higher plants, including polyploid inheritance, self-incompatibility, cytoplasmic inheritance, mutable alleles; complex loci, genome analysis, recombination ad mutagenesis. P: Genetics 561.

Agronomy/Horticulture 861-Chromosome Manipulation in Plants:
2 cr. Chromosome engineering as related to fundamental problems in plant genetics and as applied to plant breeding. P: Genetics 466 or equiv; Genetics 561 or equiv; a course in plant breeding and cons. inst.

Genetics 701-Advanced Genetics:
Advanced Genetics is a two credit lecture course for graduate students in Genetics and related fields. The course covers, at the graduate level, five main topics, each comprising six lectures with discussion: linkage and mapping, non-Mendelian inheritance, chromosomal phenomena, mutation and screening and meiosis. P: Grad student or cons. inst. Genetics 466 or equiv.

Plant Pathology 505-Plant-Microbe Interactions: Molecular and Ecological Aspects:
Molecular and ecological aspects of the interactions between plants and microorganisms. This course explores many of the themes, from genetic to integrative, of modern biology and illustrates how study of plant-microbe interactions contributes to understanding of fundamental plant science. P: An upper level course in micobiology (e.g. Bact 303); biochem (e.g. Biochem 501); and Genetics (e.g. Genetics 466) or cons inst.

Plant Pathology 517-Plant Disease Resistance:
2-3 cr. Role of host resistance in plant disease control, and lab techniques used for evaluating host resistance and incorporating resistance factors into new crop varieties. P: Pl Path 300 & genetics or plant breeding crse, or cons inst.

Plant Pathology 618-Genetics of Plant Host-Parasite Interactions:
The inheritance in both host and pathogen of interactions and interaction phenotypes, molecular genetics and models of interactions, and the use of the knowledge of the basic genetics to effect disease control. P: Pl Path 300 & 332 ; intro genetics or cons inst.

Agronomy/Horticulture 875-Evol. Domest.:
3 cr. Botany 563-Molecular Approaches in Plant Evolution and Systematics:</u> </b> 3cr. Principles and applications of micro- and macromolecular approaches to vascular plant population biology, biosystmeatics, and phylogenetics. P: One course in biochem, genetics, taxonomy, or evolution or cons inst.

Botany 828-Evolutionary Plant Ecology:
3 cr. Topics in plant population biology from an evolutionary perspective, including the ideas of kin and group selection, life history analysis, the dynamics of plant competition, and the adaptive significance of sex. P: An ecology crse (Botany/Zoology 460 or Biocore 333) and a genetics crse of cons inst.

Agronomy 771-Experimental Designs:
1 cr. Review of methods from controlling error in research experiments; review and in-depth development of factorial treatment designs; theory, analysis, and examples of advanced experimental designs for plant and animal research. P: Stat 571 & 572.

Agronomy 772-Applications in Anova:
1 cr. Development of models, programs, inferences, and interpretations of analysis of variance in biological research; mixed vs. random effects models and their development; choosing the correct inference range; variance and covariance analyses; repeated measures; dealing with missing data; SAS programming. P: Stat 571 & 572.

Agronomy/Horticulture 811-Biometrical Procedures in Plant Breeding:
3 cr. Use of statistical methods to facilitate improvements in quantitative traits of cultivated plants. P: Intro courses in genetics & statistics.

Agronomy/Horticulture 812-Selection Theory for Quantitative Traits in Plants: Develop and evaluate mathematical theories for population improvement. Review recurrent selection strategies and examine resource allocation for plant breeding programs. P: Agronomy 770 or equiv, Agronomy, Hort 811, or cons inst.

Genetics 629-Population Genetics:
3 cr.Introduction to field of theoretical population genetics with emphasis on mathematical modeling. P: Genetics 466 or equiv; courses in calculus and statistics.

Horticulture 550-Molecular Approaches for Potential Crop Improvement:
3 cr. Introduction of basic concepts of plant molecular biology and molecular techniques in current use. Topics include: organization and regulation of plant genes, gene cloning and analysis, transformation systems for plants, and molecular techniques for crop improvement. P: Biochem 501 and Genetics 466 or equiv courses.

Botany 840-Tegulatory Mechanisms in Plant Development:
Molecular mechanisms whereby endogenous and environmental regulatory factors control development; emphasis on stimulus perception and primary events in the signal chain leading to modulated gene expression and cellular development; lecture. P: Biochem 501 or 601; Botany 500 or Biocore 301 & 323.

Agronomy/Horticulture 875-Plant Physiology & Biochemical Genetics: Biochemistry 621-Plant Biochemistry: 3 cr. Lectures. Biochemistry of photosynthesis, respiration, and other metabolic and biosynthetic processes in plants. P: Biochem 501 or 602 or cons inst.

Genetics 603-Eukaryotic Molecular Biology:
Eukaryotic cell biology, mainly in animal cells; focuses on the differences in gene activity between cell types and on the assembly and reproduction of subcellular constituents. P: Biochem 612.