Biological Sciences

As land plants are sessile organisms, they have evolved sophisticated defense mechanisms against various environmental stresses. To survive and reproduce, plants adapt to stresses by changing their physiology and gene expression. Insect herbivores are one of major biotic stresses to plants. As plants are the main nutrient sources for these insects, plants have evolved with a number of defense mechanisms to protect themselves. This course explains crop-insect interaction from several aspects (molecular mechanisms, traits, ecology, evolution, and practical farming management). Topics: plant traits to insects, insect traits to plants, tritrophic interactions, plant community ecology and evolution, and implications of crop-insect interactions. Text: C.M. Smith, PLANT RESISTANCE TO ARTHROPODS: MOLECULAR AND CONVENTIONAL APPROACHES; L.M. Schoonhoven, J.J.A. van Loon, and M. Dicke, INSECT-PLANT BIOLOGY. Assessment: final report, presentation, midterm exam, attendance and participation.

The course introduces construction and function of gene vector and systematical knowledge of vecotorlogy. Topics include the the meaning and methods of genetic operation and the status of gene vector in genetic therapy.

This lecture series covers the science and sociology of insects as a food. Increasing media, investment, and public policy attention has been given to the role insects may play in the future of food. Can eating insects really save the world from famine and environmental destruction? Are there health costs or benefits to adding insects to the diet? Will all people accept insects as food? Should we be promoting edible insects at all, and if so, how best do we do it? What species will we eat and how shall we raise them? This class examines all aspects of the edible insects question, with students taught a broad but thorough overview of the field and asked to consider questions in class about what role they think insects will play in their own food futures, and why they think this way.

The goal of this inter-disciplinary bioinformatics course, consisting of lectures, exercises, and a seminar, is to introduce students to (1) key theoretical concepts, computational strategies, and algorithms for predicting RNA secondary structures and related features, covering probabilistic and comparative machine learning methods; (2) key experimental concepts for transcriptome-wide RNA structure and RNA-RNA interaction probing; and (3) key research contributions published in recent years.

This course examines the study of the interactions between crop plants and their abiotic and biotic environments within the tropical agroecosystem. In this course, the focus is on the environmental relations of individual crop species (autecology). Characteristics of the crop production system will be studied along with human and environmental influences on the provision of ecosystem services, resource use efficiency, crop yield, and sustainability. Crop evolution, breeding and distribution will be explored using selected crop examples and taking into account propagation issues, environmental influences and crop production goals. Physical factors of particular interest include solar irradiance, temperature, water supply, atmospheric conditions, and soil characteristics (including mineral nutrient supply). The balance of carbon, energy, water, and mineral nutrients in crop ecosystems is also relevant for the analysis of input use efficiency. Biotic factors of interest include cropping system features, plant density, weeds, pests, diseases, and beneficial organisms. Biotic and abiotic stress factors will be identified along with the nature of plant stress injuries and adaptations/manipulations that favor growth and production in suboptimal environments. Integrated approaches for the management of abiotic and biotic constraints to crop production will be considered.