Mineral Nutrition of Plants

SoilScience/Botany/Horticulture 626

Syllabus

Fall 1996


Instructors: Phillip Barak & Edgar Spalding

Textbook: Mineral Nutrition of Higher Plants, 2nd ed., H. Marschner, Academic Press

Meeting time: Mondays and Fridays, 3:30-4:45, 357 Soil Science Building.


Weeks 1-5:

9/4 Introduction (Phil & Edgar) partial lecture by EPS on root morphology, cell structure,

apoplast, symplast, free space, apparent free space as covered in Marschner, Chpt. 2. pp.6-12

9/6 Electrochemical potential, active and passive transport across membranes. The minimum thermodynamics necessary to understand membrane transport. read handout.

9/9 Ion channels, carriers and pumps, techniques for studying them

9/13 Potassium uptake, the classic experiments

9/16 Potassium uptake, the molecules involved and the genes that encode them, mutational studies & expression patterns.

9/20 Nitrate uptake, the classic experiments (paper assignments, give list of suggested topics)

9/23 Nitrate and ammonium uptake, the molecules involved and the genes that encode them

9/27 Phosphorus, fungal-plant interactions, molecular biology of phosphorus transporters

9/30 Special transporters in the Rhizobium-plant symbiosis, water relations and the transport of ions in the xylem, loading and unloading.

10/4 Student presentations and discussions

10/7 Student presentations and discussions

10/9 Student presentations and discussions


Weeks 6-15:

Plant Composition

Research methods of plant culture

Single nutrient or nutrient interaction?

Rhizosphere chemistry and dynamics

Long-distance transport in xylem and phloem

Macronutrients (special problem)

Micronutrients

Genotypic differences in nutrient requirements

Student presentations/projects


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This page was last modified by Phillip Barak, Univ. of Wisconsin, on 2 Nov 1996. All rights reserved.