Practicals in plant biology

Coordinators

Benoît ALUNNI (UFR Sciences – Université Paris-Saclay) and Marie DUFRESNE (UFR Sciences – Université Paris-Saclay).

Objective

The TU "Practicals in Plant Biology" aims to get students acquainted with a practical and conceptual approach as well as scientific reasoning based on a topic adjacent to a research issue. The topic may vary from year to year but the idea is to maintain a set of integrative questions in the field of plant response to biotic and/or abiotic stresses. In parallel, students implement an integral approach of Koch's postulate (diagnosis of the pathogen responsible for symptoms observed in plants). The proposed approach in this TU allows the student to be immersed in a current research topic and to become familiar with a set of basic techniques of plant molecular physiology and plant pathology.

At the end of the TU, the student will be able to:

• Rigorously follow an experimental protocol in plant biology
• Implement, as a team, an experimental approach by dividing work and responsibilities
• Collect, analyze and present scientific results in written and oral presentations.

Format

The TU is organized in two consecutive weeks (weeks 50-51). It consists of a majority of hours of practical work (42 hours) dedicated to various experiments (plant pathology, molecular physiology, biochemistry, cytology, analysis of transgenic plants) allowing students to collect a set of data on a well-defined biological question. These hours are completed by : (1) 8 hours of tutorials designed as interactive discussions on scientific approaches and (2) 10 hours of personal work, possibly tutored, in order to gather and analyze all the results at the level of the group of students.

French
Elective TU (Choice between this TU "Practicals in plant biology" and the TU "Operative innovative business").
Tutorials: 8h, Practicals: 42h, Mentoring: 10h
ECTS: 4
Location: Orsay