Applied Plant Physiology
Code: 100798 ECTS Credits: 6| Degree | Type | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Biology | OT | 4 |
Contact
- Name:
- Soledad Martos Arias
- Email:
- soledad.martos@uab.cat
Teachers
- Isabel Corrales Pinart
- Eliana Carolina Bianucci Ovando
Teaching groups languages
You can view this information at the end of this document.
Prerequisites
It is recommended to review the basic concepts of plant physiology offered at the subjects of 'Plant Nutrition and Metabolism' and 'Physiology and Regulation of Plant Development'
Objectives and Contextualisation
The general objective of this subject is to introduce the students into the functional mechanisms and techniques that will improve the yield of the crop plants and their agricultural and industrial applications.
The specific training objectives are:
- Identify the processes that determine the yield of plants of agricultural and industrial interest and their regulation by internal and environmental factors.
- Acquire an advanced vision of reproduction techniques for plants with a practical purpose.
- Introduce the students to the basic techniques of agricultural biotechnology.
- Introduce the students to the basics of phytochemistry and its application in medicine and industry.
Competences
- Act with ethical responsibility and respect for fundamental rights and duties, diversity and democratic values.
- Apply statistical and computer resources to the interpretation of data.
- Be able to analyse and synthesise
- Be able to organise and plan.
- Carry out functional tests and determine, assess and interpret vital parameters.
- Make changes to methods and processes in the area of knowledge in order to provide innovative responses to society's needs and demands.
- Students must be capable of applying their knowledge to their work or vocation in a professional way and they should have building arguments and problem resolution skills within their area of study.
- Students must be capable of collecting and interpreting relevant data (usually within their area of study) in order to make statements that reflect social, scientific or ethical relevant issues.
- Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
- Students must develop the necessary learning skills to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.
- Students must have and understand knowledge of an area of study built on the basis of general secondary education, and while it relies on some advanced textbooks it also includes some aspects coming from the forefront of its field of study.
- Take account of social, economic and environmental impacts when operating within one's own area of knowledge.
- Take sex- or gender-based inequalities into consideration when operating within one's own area of knowledge.
Learning Outcomes
- Analyse a situation and identify its points for improvement.
- Apply statistical and computer resources to the interpretation of data.
- Be able to analyse and synthesise.
- Be able to organise and plan.
- Carry out functional tests and determine, assess and interpret vital parameters in plants.
- Consolidate understanding of physiological processes in plants with the aim of putting this to practical use.
- Critically analyse the principles, values and procedures that govern the exercise of the profession.
- Propose new methods or well-founded alternative solutions.
- Students must be capable of applying their knowledge to their work or vocation in a professional way and they should have building arguments and problem resolution skills within their area of study.
- Students must be capable of collecting and interpreting relevant data (usually within their area of study) in order to make statements that reflect social, scientific or ethical relevant issues.
- Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
- Students must develop the necessary learning skills to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.
- Students must have and understand knowledge of an area of study built on the basis of general secondary education, and while it relies on some advanced textbooks it also includes some aspects coming from the forefront of its field of study.
- Take account of social, economic and environmental impacts when operating within one's own area of knowledge.
- Take sex- or gender-based inequalities into consideration when operating within one's own area of knowledge.
Content
Lectures
- Applied Plant Physiology: field of study; Scientific and social interest
- Plant productivity and yield: Assessment parameters; Conditioning factors
- Genetic potential and its regulation by internal and external factors
- External factors:
- Biotic
- Negative plant-microorganism interaction: pathogenesis of bacterial, viral and fungal diseases
- Positive plant-microorganism interaction: plant growth promoting bacteria
- Molecular bases of plant defense
- Environmental
- Essential nutrients and soil fertility.
- Water needs of plants and increased efficiency in water sources.
- Temperature needs of the plants. Greenhouses and hydroponics.
- Internal factors
- Reproduction and regulation of development
- Genetics of reproduction: Sexual reproduction and seed technology
- Asexual reproduction
- In vitro reproduction
- Genetic breeding
- Plant biotechnology: methods and applications
- Secondary metabolism of plants
- Regulation of growth, use of phytoregulators
- Optimization of production technologies
- Sustainable plant production and integrative plant production
Seminars
Different projects that will be developed by groups
Laboratory practices
- In vitro culture techniques
- Assessment of ascorbic acid in fruits
- Effect of herbicides on photosynthetic pigments
- Germination assay
- Effect of the osmotic potential on the seed germination
Field trips
Visit an agrotechnological research center
Activities and Methodology
| Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type: Directed | |||
| Lab practice | 16 | 0.64 | 2, 6, 5, 3 |
| Lectures | 28 | 1.12 | 14, 7, 3, 4 |
| Seminar | 6 | 0.24 | 15, 14, 8, 9, 10 |
| Type: Supervised | |||
| Field excursion | 4 | 0.16 | 15, 7, 13 |
| Tutoring | 5 | 0.2 | 7, 11, 3 |
| Type: Autonomous | |||
| Elaboration of homeworks and /or seminars | 11 | 0.44 | 14, 1, 2, 8, 12, 11, 3, 4 |
| Elaboration of lab reports | 5 | 0.2 | 2, 6, 5, 10, 3, 4 |
| Personal study | 70 | 2.8 | 15, 14, 7, 2, 6, 8, 13, 12, 9, 3, 4 |
Lectures
During the lectures, the professor explains the functional mechanisms and techniques that allow to improve the yield of crop plants and their agricultural and industrial applications, establishing the functional and mechanistic relationships clarifying the basic concepts necessary for their understanding. The methodology is mainly lecture-based, accompanied by visual diagrams. During the lectures, exercises will also be proposed and questions will be thrown to the students which will be solved by the teachers in order to know the degree of follow-up and facilitate the understanding of the concepts. Bibliographical references and other sources of information are given to foster self-study.
Flipped classes
Three hours of lectures have been eliminated and replaced by a task where the students, divided into groups, will have to search for a scientific publication in the Web of Science database following quality guidelines. The publication will have to be related to the block of biotic factors that affect crop productivity. Then, the different subgroups will have to work on this publication in order to capture the main ideas in a ppt and create a video that they will post on the subject’s moodle. All this work will be done in class with the guidance of the teachers.
Seminars
The main purpose of the seminars in this subject is to promote the knowledge of the general and transversal competences of the students. The teaching methodology is based on projects where students divided into groups of 3-5 will have to design a scientific experiment, to analyze the offer of vegetable products available in markets and supermarkets, among others.
Laboratory practices
Some of the topics covered in the theory class are visualized through laboratory testing. The student became familiar with protocols and techniques of Applied Plant Physiology and have to analyze the results from theirown experiments. The student will be able to access the protocols and guides of practices through the Virtual Campus.
Field trips
A visit to an plant agrobiotechnology research center.
Tutorial
In tutorials, the professor tries to help the students to solve their doubts about the concepts of the subject and guide them in their studies.
Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.
Assessment
Continous Assessment Activities
| Title | Weighting | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Evaluation of lab practices | 15% | 1 | 0.04 | 7, 1, 2, 6, 5, 8, 12, 9, 10, 3, 4 |
| Evaluation of seminar | 15% | 0 | 0 | 15, 14, 1, 2, 8, 13, 12, 11, 9, 10, 3, 4 |
| Evaluation of the video from the flipped class | 10% | 0 | 0 | 7, 13, 12, 11, 3 |
| Exam of first part | 30% | 2 | 0.08 | 7, 1, 8, 13, 11, 9, 3, 4 |
| Exam of second part | 30% | 2 | 0.08 | 7, 1, 8, 13, 11, 9, 3, 4 |
The content of the theoretical classes will be assessed through written exams. Two midterm exams will be administered, each covering one of the two equally divided parts of the syllabus. These midterms are eliminatory. Each midterm exam accounts for 50% of the theory grade. The theory grade represents 60% of the final course grade.
To improve their grade or to pass if they scored below 5, students may take a resit exam at the end of the course for each of the midterms. A minimum score of 5 is required to pass the final exam.
If a student takes the resit exam to improve their grade, the previous grade will be forfeited, and only the resit exam grade will be counted. Students who take the final exam are not eligible for the honors distinction ("matrícula de honor").
To participate in the final exam, students must have been previously assessed in a set of activities that account for at least two-thirds of the total course grade. Therefore, students will receive a "Not Assessable" grade if the evaluation activities completed represent less than 67% of the final grade.
The task derived from the flipped classroom, which concludes with the presentation of a video accompanied by a PowerPoint, will account for 10% of the final grade.
Laboratory practicals will be assessed through an individual theoretical exam conducted after the practical sessions, representing 80% of the practicals grade. The preparation of the practical report, done in groups, will account for the remaining 20%. The report must be submitted via the Virtual Campus one week after the end of the practical sessions.
The practicals grade constitutes 15% of the final course grade. Attendance to practicals is mandatory. In case of justified absence, students may attend another group’s session or, if that is not possible, complete a substitute assignment. There isno resit exam for practicals.
Participation in seminars accounts for 15% of the final grade. Attendance to seminars is mandatory. There is no resit for seminars. If a seminar is missed without a valid justification, the percentage that the seminar contributed to the final grade will be deducted.
To pass the course, students must obtain a minimum score of 5 in the theory section and an average score of 5 across all components of the course (theory, practicals, seminars, and flipped classroom video evaluation).
Students who cannot attend an individual assessment due to a justified reason (such as illness, death of a first-degree relative, or accident) and provide the corresponding official documentation to the Degree Coordinator will have the right to take the assessment on another date.
Students opting for single assessment must complete the laboratory practicals (PLAB) in person alongside continuous assessment peers. Passing the practicals, which account for 15% of the final grade, is mandatory. Seminars (SEM) are not mandatory for single assessment students, but they must complete 3 out of the 6 seminars from the continuous assessment format. The teaching staff will select which seminars must be completed. The seminar tasks must be submitted on the same day as the synthesis exam.
The single assessment consists of a single synthesis exam (with open-ended questions, concept integration, and real case resolution) covering the entire theory syllabus.
The synthesis exam grade accounts for 70% of the final course grade, the practicals for 15%, and the seminars for theremaining 15%.
The single assessment exam will be held on the same date as the final continuous assessment exam and will follow thesame resit policy.
To pass the course, students must obtain a minimum final score of 5 out of 10 in each component (synthesis exam, PLAB, and SEM).
Bibliography
AGRIOS GN.: Plant Pathology, 5ª edición. Academic Press, San Diego, 2005. https://www.sciencedirect.com/book/9780120445653/plant-pathology
Chrispeels, M.J., Sadova, D.E.: Plant Genes and Crop Biotechnology. 2nd ed. Jones & Bartlett Publ., Sudbury, 2003.
Neals S.C. (ed) Plant Biotechnology: Principles Techniques and Aplications. Wiley cop., 2008.
FORBES JC, WATSON RD.: Plants in Agriculture. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1992.
HARTMANN, H.T. et al. Plant Propagation. Principles and Practice. 7th ed. Prentice Hall. 2001.
JIMENEZ DIAZ, R; LAMO DE ESPINOSA, J.: Agricultura Sostenible. Mundi Prensa, 1998.
NIATU, JN. Advances in Plant Pathology. InTech Publisher. Electronic book. 2018. DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.71796. ISBN: 978-1-78923-609-5 https://www.intechopen.com/books/advances-in-plant-pathology
Wik, M. Function and biotechnology of plant secondary metabolism. 2nd edition Wiley Blackwell 2010.
Infography prepared by the Library Facility that would help the search of electronic books: https://ddd.uab.cat/record/22492
Software
None
Groups and Languages
Please note that this information is provisional until 30 November 2025. You can check it through this link. To consult the language you will need to enter the CODE of the subject.
| Name | Group | Language | Semester | Turn |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (PLAB) Practical laboratories | 241 | Catalan | first semester | afternoon |
| (PLAB) Practical laboratories | 242 | Catalan | first semester | afternoon |
| (PLAB) Practical laboratories | 243 | Catalan | first semester | afternoon |
| (SEM) Seminars | 241 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (SEM) Seminars | 242 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (SEM) Seminars | 243 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (TE) Theory | 24 | Spanish | first semester | morning-mixed |