The past decade has seen a rapid development of conceptual models to guide the study of plant-microbe interactions and an explosion of new tools to test those models. We now have access to complete genome sequences of many pathogens and plants and we can visualize key molecular events as they occur in living systems. We also understand increasingly that the phenomena we explore -- from pathogen attack mechanisms to host innate immune responses -- are part of a broad web of inter-organismal interactions whose understanding can benefit both plant and human health.
Students in this program have a common goal of understanding the biology of the interactions between plants and microbes, particularly with respect to pathogenesis and symbiosis. They typically conduct research on pathogenic, symbiotic, and epiphytic processes enabling microbial associations with plants, and on the mechanisms in plants that lead to defense, susceptibility, or cooperation.
In addition to three core courses in Plant Pathology, students in the Plant-Microbe Biology Program typically take advanced courses in allied fields such as Biochemistry, Molecular and Cell Biology, Genetics and Development, Genomics, Microbiology, and Plant Biology. The inherently broad training afforded by the molecular study of interaction biology enables graduates of this program to pursue a wide range of disciplines and careers.
Examples of additional Plant Pathology courses that might be taken:
- PlPa 4090 Principles of Virology
- PlPa 4831 Plant Molecular Biology I: Concepts and Techniques in Plant Molecular Biology
Examples of other courses that might be taken:
- BioBM 631 Protein Structure and Function
- BioBM 633 Biosynthesis of Macromolecules
- BioBM 639 The Nucleus
- STBTRY 682 Statistical Genomics