Plant Plasticity and Adaptation

Due to their sessile nature, plants have developed a vast array of adaptation mechanisms to cope with seasonal or sudden changes in the growth environment. These adaptation mechanisms mostly consist of species-, environment- and stress- specific changes in the basal morphological and physiological processes, shared by all plants. The success with which plants are able to survive under a wide range of environmental stresses (high and low temperature; drought, humid and flooded conditions; high concentrations of salt; shadow and high light; mechanical (wind) stress; etc.) is based on their high plasticity and the flexibility of their morphology and physiology. This is expressed in adaptations in relation to e.g.:

• uptake, exchange and transport of water and nutrients;
• photosynthesis;
• (dynamics of) architecture of plants;
• biomechanics of structural strength;
• responses to stress conditions;
• reproductive behaviour; etc.

The course focuses on mechanisms, regulation and genetic principles of plasticity in structure and physiology needed for plants to adapt to environmental variations and extremes. Lecturers from different disciplines in plant science will contribute varying topics within the scope of the course.

• Critically analyse and evaluate how major subdisciplines within plant sciences contribute to integrative, multi-scale approaches for studying plant function, plasticity, and adaptation in natural and managed ecosystems

• Analyse and compare plant photosynthetic strategies under contrasting environmental conditions (e.g. light, water, CO₂), and evaluate their adaptive significance and trade-offs

• Evaluate how light quantity and quality perception regulate plant development and synthesize how these responses shape competitive interactions in heterogeneous environments

• Analyse shoot and root branching responses to environmental signals by interpreting underlying regulatory and hormonal networks, and predict architectural outcomes under altered conditions

• Evaluate the role of genetic and natural variation in plant stress adaptation, including its origin, maintenance, and exploitation, and critically assess methods used to quantify genotype–environment interactions

• Analyse and compare plant survival and reproductive strategies under extreme environmental stresses, and evaluate their evolutionary and ecological relevance in the context of global climate change

• Critically evaluate high-throughput phenotyping systems by comparing their underlying principles, strengths, and limitations, and justify their suitability for studying plant plasticity and adaptation

• Critically analyse and discuss a peer-reviewed research paper related to plant plasticity and adaptation by evaluating the research question, experimental design, data interpretation, and conclusions, and situate the study within the broader scientific literature through active discussion

• Design, justify, and apply a conceptual framework explaining plant plasticity and adaptation by synthesizing peer-reviewed literature and publicly available datasets, and use this framework to predict plant responses to real-world or future environmental scenarios

• ? (65%) Question relate to content as discussed during lectures and associated papers, discussed in tutorials
• ? (35%) Relates to individual and group (2 to 4 students) tutorials. In case grading is scored as insufficient, an adapted version can be submitted before the resit exam.
• ? (%) Participation in groupwork and pre-/post class exercises.
• ? (%) Relates to the presentation and critical discussion of a research paper related to plant plasticity. Will be scored as Very good (9), Adequate (7) or Insufficient (5). In case grading is scored as insufficient, students as a group get a second opportunity within the current course.

ZSS06100 Laboratory Safety, ZSS06200 Fieldwork Safety Basic knowledge on plant physiology, plant cell biology, and genetics, as taught in: GEN11806 Fundamentals of Genetics and Molecular Biology; CLB10803 Reproduction of Plants; PPH10806 Structure and Function of Plants, or equivalent courses.

• will be made available via BrightSpace