Plant Biology

What you'll learn

• Describe the distinctive features of plant cells, explain the composition and architecture of primary and secondary cell walls, and use the Lockhart equation and wall-stress calculations to explain how walls control cell growth and shape.
• Relate plant tissues and cell types to their functions, explain how shoot and root apical meristems are organized and maintained, and describe phyllotaxis, primary structure and secondary growth, including wood formation and growth analysis.
• Explain the light reactions of photosynthesis, including pigments, antennae, the Z-scheme, water oxidation, chemiosmotic ATP synthesis, cyclic electron flow and photoprotection, and interpret light-response curves and fluorescence measurements.
• Describe the Calvin–Benson cycle, rubisco and photorespiration quantitatively, apply a simplified Farquhar model to predict responses to CO₂, and compare C3, C4 and CAM photosynthesis, including carbon isotope evidence.
• Calculate water potentials and their components, explain the movement of water from soil through the plant to the atmosphere by the cohesion–tension mechanism, interpret vulnerability curves, and relate transpiration to stomatal conductance and vapour pressure deficit.
• Identify essential mineral nutrients and their deficiency symptoms, use the Nernst equation to distinguish passive from active ion transport, explain nitrogen fixation and mycorrhizal symbioses, and describe phloem loading and pressure flow.
• Explain the discovery, transport, perception and effects of auxin, cytokinins and gibberellins, including polar auxin transport, receptor-mediated degradation of repressors and the genetic basis of the Green Revolution.
• Explain how abscisic acid, ethylene, brassinosteroids, jasmonates, salicylic acid, strigolactones and peptide hormones are made and perceived, and analyse their roles in stomatal control, ripening, abscission, branching and hormone crosstalk.
• Describe plant photoreceptors and the phytochrome switch, explain tropisms, the circadian clock, photoperiodic control of flowering and vernalization, and calculate day length and phytochrome photoequilibrium.
• Explain the control of flowering and floral organ identity with the ABC(E) model, describe gametophyte development, pollination, self-incompatibility and double fertilization, and analyse seed dormancy, germination, fruit development and asexual reproduction.
• Explain plant immunity from pattern recognition to effector-triggered immunity and systemic resistance, analyse gene-for-gene interactions and epidemic models, and describe plant responses to herbivores, drought, heat, cold, salinity and flooding.
• Apply plant biology to crops and climate change, explain plant biotechnology and genome editing and how Canada regulates plants with novel traits, with US comparisons, and use growing degree days to analyse how warming affects crop development.