EFB530 Plant Physiology
Intro - Plants and Life (. . . or What's so great about plant physiology?)
Roster
Office hours/research
Syllabus & grading
What's unique and important about plants? See the 12 principles of plant biology (according to ASPB)
Why is important and interesting to study plant physiology?
Why is this course important in our curriculum and what is the justification for our society funding research on plant science? (greater than $400 million dollars a year in Federal money)
1)Plants are the ultimate food source for what we eat
- Trace the number of the world's population-
- very low when primarily hunters (migratory, couldn't travel with very many kids)
- started rapidly growing upon the switch to agrarian society (~10,000 years ago)
=permanent home, stored seeds, increasing vegetable component of diet
kids more of an asset in agrarian society
need less land than for hunting, can have cities
~5 million people 10,000 years ago
- now is growing at 1.5% per year (may level off at 10-14 billion by 2100??)
2) Plants produce the oxygen we breathe and consume CO2 we produce
- Interaction between global vegetation and the composition of the atmosphere
- atmosphere is ~0.035% CO2 now, predicted to increase to 0.06% by 2050
- plants are also sensitive to air pollution
3) Plants are sources of many non-food products we need
- Fiber=shelter, clothing, paper
- Medicines
- Energy- renewable
- Oils
4) Natural curiosity
- Plant biochemistry and physiology is different from animals/bacteria
Plants are sessile
- must endure the climate
- grow indeterminately to compete successfully
- must obtain nutrition from their immediate surroundings
- dispersal/breeding strategies have evolved
- must defend themselves-can't run & hide
What are some of the objectives of current research in plant science?
Increased yield of currently cultivated crops
Need to increase yield to better feed the world population (>5.8 billion)
- we have made big increases in crop production over the past 30 years and mostly due to increased yield=green revolution
- yield is often proportional to input-more fertilizer, water, pesticide
=fossil fuel products, very expensive
- yield increases in cereals-wheat and rice due to breeding; corn due to hybrid vigor
=2.6-fold increase in world grain production since 1950 (loss of >20% of topsoil on cultivated land)
but...in much of the developing world >75% of the population is engaged in food production
in the U.S. in recent decades <3% of the population produce our food
- better or faster production and allocation of photosynthate
- better resistence to diseases and pests-before and after harvest (using less pesticide)
- greater tolerance to stress-drought, salt, pollution, heat, cold
- better agricultural technique-control of weeds, ripening, growth (sustainable)
- engineering of nitrogen fixation
Improved qualities
- more nutritious foods and feeds=better balance of essential amino acids
- ag products that require less processing
- products that yield less waste by-products
New plants developed as cultivatable crops
- we currently derive 80% of our calories from only 6 different angiosperms (out of 235,000)-only 3,000 have ever been cultivated for food, only 150 ever widely cultivated
New products from plants
(Using the ability of plants to harvest solar energy for new applications)
There has been an attitude that purification of products from plants is archaic compared to chemical synthesis in production laboratories
Plant products as substitutes for fossil fuels
- industrial oils
- energy production
- auto fuel
- biodegradable plastics
- natural rubber
Plant products which are medicines or using plants to produce medicines
- vaccines in plants-i.e. oral vaccines in bananas to hepatitis B, rotavirus
Plants in bioremediation
- cleaning up contaminated soils-heavy metals
- using plants to treat/clean industrial waste
Impact of ecosystem disturbance on plants
- loss of biodiversity
- shifts in competitive advantage
- effects of changes in atmosphere
Plants in space
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