BZ555 Spring 2013
Reproductive Biology of Higher Plants
Instructor: Pat Bedinger 491-2879 bedinger@colostate.edu
Tuesday, Thursday 9:30-10:45, Yates 206
This is a graduate/advanced undergraduate course that will focus on the genetic and developmental aspects of reproduction in higher plants. Dr. Bedinger’s lectures will be posted online before class along with recent journal articles about each subject. Each student will prepare 3 journal club presentations on 3 subjects. Lectures to introduce each subject will be on Thursdays and journal articles and discussions will be on the following Tuesdays. All students will read all 12 of the journal articles and each student will prepare at least two questions (about the subject or article) to bring to each class.
Schedule
January 22 Introduction to course, model systems – PAB
January 24 Molecular methods of analysis – PAB
January 29 Genetic methods of analysis – PAB
January 31 The decision to flower – PAB
February 5 Journal club – PAB and class
February 7 Building a flower
February 12 Journal club
February 14 Ovule and female gametophyte development
February 19 Journal club
February 21 Pollen development and pollen tube growth
February 26 Journal club
February 28 Pollen/stigma interactions and Sporophytic Self Incompatibility (SSI)
March 5 Journal club
March 7 Pollen/style and pollen/ovule interactions
March 12 Journal club
March 14 S-RNase based Gametophytic Self Incompatibility (GSI)
March 26 Journal club
March 28 Fertilization
April 2 Journal club
April 4 Embryo development
April 9 Journal club
April 11 Endosperm Development
April 16 Journal club
April 18 Seed Development
April 23 Journal club
April 25 Apomixis
April 30 Journal club
May 2 Fruit Development
May 7 Journal club, take-home exam given out
May 14 Take-home exam due
Presentations
Presenters will present and lead a journal club discussion for each subject. Dr. Bedinger will help to identify recent articles for the journal club sessions and will have final approval of each selection. Presenters will need to read at least 2 supporting papers.
Presenters will supply a (6-slides per page) handout of each presentation at least four days prior to presentations for Dr. Bedinger to post on the course web site. Each student should bring these to class. Each journal club presentation should be about 1 hour in length. Practice, and time yourself. You should be using a maximum of 35 slides per presentation. Slides should be legible, interesting and to-the-point (don’t make them overly complex). Be sure to show the primary data but never show data you do not discuss – in some cases only show part of a figure or Table if the entire figure or Table is too complex. Label all parts of the figures that are presented.
How to structure your journal club:
1. Title: show a figure from the article and complete reference (1)
2. The Big Picture: including the rationale for the research presented in the paper (2-3)
3. Background: including previous work (4-5)
4. Content: show the primary data, explain how the experiments were done, and the conclusions from each experiment. Note the controls for each experiment (10-20)
5. Conclusions: summary (1) critique (1) and future directions (1)
Formal grading rubrics will be posted once we have established the number of presentations that each student will be making
Participation
All students taking the course must read the handouts and articles before class, and bring at least two questions to every class that demonstrate that you have read the handout/paper. Plan to ask at least one of the questions during class; the list of questions will be turned in to Dr. Bedinger at the end of each class.
EXAMS:
A 100 point take-home exam will be given based on the lectures and journal articles. It must be typed and both an electronic version and a hard copy submitted to Dr. Bedinger.
GRADE: 500 points total: 300 for presentations, 100 for participation in class, 100 for take-home exam