Fundamental Aspects of Plant Resilience

Sessile plants have developed various adaptation mechanisms to cope with environmental challenges. Such (a)biotic challenges can be constitutive present or have seasonal or sudden dynamics. Hence, the success of plants to survive under a wide range of environmental stresses, including high and low temperature; high concentrations of salt; drought, humid and flooded conditions; shadow and high light; and more, is based on their high physiological plasticity and flexibility.
The focus of this course is on current topics in the field of physiological and biochemical mechanisms of plant resilience towards (a)biotic stress and the regulation of plasticity needed for plants to adapt to environmental variations and extremes, including recent insights from other disciplines such as ecology, soil biology, molecular and cell biology, plant physiology, biotechnology, biochemistry, and genetics. Besides developing a more integrative view on plant plasticity and adaptations, students will also discuss how this knowledge can be translated into better plant health and crops more resilient to a changing climate.

As scientists predominantly use written communication to share findings with other scientists or experts, such as in the form of peer-reviewed journal articles, effective communication relies on concise and precise writing enabling others to understand and build further on the research. In this course, students will be engaged in case studies to obtain insights into the coherence and interdependency of concepts and disciplines related to a topic of their choice. Such a study may include, for example, an assessment of natural genetic variation in a range of ecotypes, modelling of plant (organ) architecture in different environments, or a survey of the effect of multiple stresses on one species in a specific biotope. Alternatively, the study can focus on the compilation of a coherent story about a chosen topic from the perspectives of different scientific expertises, such as bioinformatics, experimental physiological and biochemical approaches and more. Writing a coherent and logical story requires the student to digest and reflect on a body of knowledge, resulting in deepening the understanding of the selected topic.

After successful completion of this course students are expected to be able to:

• Identify relevant scientific information in databases on a state-of-the-art topic in plant resilience
• Identify gaps in the current knowledge related to the subject matter of their literature research and make a concrete proposal to address these gaps with further research
• Develop a rational outline for a scientific essay that includes an integrative discussion of a selection of the scientific literature
• Develop a formal scientific writing style with a particular focus on precision, clarity, and conciseness
• Provide structured feedback on the scientific text of other students;
• Present scientific information on current topics in plant resilience in a comprehensible way into a written text, illustrating their understanding of the subject matter in their own words and writing, to demonstrate that the information has been integrated and synthesized

Assumed Knowledge:
This course is for students in the third year of their BSc program as a possible preparation for their thesis, and for more advanced MSc students in Plant Sciences, Biology, and Plant Biotechnology. We expect students to have knowledge of plant biology such as thought in Plant Plasticity and Adaptation (PPH30806) or similar courses.