Undergraduate Teaching

IMPS is internationally recognised for its plant science research in subjects ranging from the regulation of growth and development, disease resistance, starch and cell wall metabolism to plant evolution. We also have strong research and teaching links with taxonomists and evolutionary biologists at the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh. This enthusiasm and diversity in plant science research is reflected in IMPS teaching programmes. IMPS runs a 4-year Honours BSc degree program in Plant Science, and an MSc program and Diploma in Biodiversity and Taxonomy of Plants is run jointly with the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh. Plant Science Honours students can choose from a wide range of biology courses in years 1-3 and begin to specialise in Plant Science in years 3 and 4. Members of staff of IMPS organize a number of the courses in years 1-4 and contribute to many others. Further details of courses and entry are provided by the SBS undergraduate and postgraduate teaching webpages at http://www.biology.ed.ac.uk/undergraduate/courses/.

Plant Science 4 C200 SCQF Level 10, is a two-semester 120-point programme leading to BSc Honours in Plant Science. The programme director is Professor Stephen Fry. The programme is concerned with how plants grow and develop, how they respond to and interact with the environment, how they evolve and diversify, and their importance to human survival and wellbeing. Students can tailor course content to their own interests. The core of general plant science topics combines many important aspects of contemporary plant science, from the biology and ethics of GM to the use of DNA to the study evolution with different aspects of the molecular biology, biochemistry, evolutionary biology and ecology of plants or other organisms. Optional courses allow specific areas of plant biology to be considered in greater depth and students are also encouraged to integrate courses from other honours programmes. About half the Honours year is spent on an individual project as a member of an established research team.

Plants, Fungi and Symbiosis 2 IC0002, SCQF Level 8 is a first-semester 20-point course taught by seven members of staff of IMPS who are all highly active in research into the subject areas which they teach. They are therefore able to convey some of the exciting recent developments in this field of science as well as to present authoritative appraisals of the subject. This laboratory and lecture-based course provides an introduction to the physiology, structure, development and reproduction of higher plants and fungi, how plants perceive environmental changes and how cells within a multi-cellular plant communicate with each other. It includes an appraisal of aspects of plant biochemistry, sexual reproduction, biotechnology, and exploitation of biomass, and parasitic and mutualistic plant-microbe interactions. The course provides a valuable springboard to third and fourth year courses in plant sciences, as well as useful background information for biologists of many other persuasions.

Evolution and Ecology of Plants 3 (U00759; SCQF level 9) is a third-year 20-point course in Semester 2, giving an account of the evolution of plants from their first tentative exploration of land to the rise and domination of the flowering plants, the stresses they overcame on the way, their distribution, diversity and taxonomy, and their impact on our planet. The course organizer is Dr Chris Jeffree and the teaching team consists of Prof. Stephen Fry, Dr Catherine Kidner and Dr Richard Milne. This course counts directly towards Honours degrees in Plant Science and Ecological Science. It is useful background for students of Genetics, and Zoology, and will be found to be a useful component in any General Honours programme.

The course covers aspects of the origin, evolution and biodiversity of plants and fungi, their reproductive and breeding mechanisms, patterns of variation, mechanisms of interspecies competition and allelopathy, symbiosis and niche capture. The course introduces a comparison of morphological and molecular approaches to the study of the structure and phylogeny of vascular plant groups. Plant/environment interactions feature in the context of the evolution of early land plants, their shaping of and response to changes in atmospheric composition and climate, the species and structures of major Northern plant communities, and the impact of future climate change upon them. We hope that the evolution and ecology of plants and fungi - past and present, wild or cultivated - will be seen to be indissolubly linked.

Plant Physiology 3 U00774 SCQF level 9 is a 20-point course in semester 1, backed up by a great deal of relevant research activity, so that the boundaries between teaching and research become blurred. The course organizer is Professor Gary Loake. The course is primarily about the aspects of higher plant physiology, biochemistry and molecular that make plants unique. It is centred on the study of how plants work, and especially the molecular processes underlying plant growth and development. It also looks at how plants interact with the physical conditions of their environment and with the micro-organisms that share their environment.

By the end of the course, students should know the basic carbon metabolism involved in photosynthesis, photorespiration and plant respiration, the assimilation of nitrogen compounds in plants, the methods and applications of plant genomics, the responses of plants to pathogenic and symbiotic micro-organisms, and the biochemistry of the primary cell wall and its role in growth regulation.

The Plant Science Field course, U01272 organized by Dr. Chris Jeffree, is a 10-point course in the Honours program that runs in the preceding June. The course is compulsory for Plant Science 4 Honours students. It is an opportunity to demonstrate and investigate the diversity of European plants, and to learn techniques for their identification. The course also welcomes second year plant-orientated students who might be considering future entry into Plant Science Honours. Recent Field courses have taken place in the Burren 2008, SW Ireland, Naples and Cilento, Italy 2007 and Tenerife in June 2009.

Postgraduate Teaching

Biodiversity and taxonomy of Plants S0899, SCQF level 11. Programme Directors Dr. Chris Jeffree (IMPS) and Dr Louis Ronse de Craene (RGE). The complementary strengths of RBGE (collections-based biodiversity research across a wide spectrum of organisms and geographical regions) and UoE (e.g. molecular approaches to development and population genetics) provide an unrivalled basis for a plant biodiversity MSc. Eight NERC studentships are available to assist UK and EU students with fees and UK students with subsistence costs.

The aims of this world-renowned full-time, 12-month MSc programme are to equip biologists, conservationists and ecologists for careers in plant taxonomy, plant conservation, the investigation and management of plant biodiversity, and the curation of plant collections and plant biodiversity databases. Its provides ten courses giving a balanced, up-to-date account of the diversity and taxonomy of plants, algae and fungi, plus methods of pure and applied taxonomy, fully recognizing the contributions of molecular methods in phylogeny reconstruction and population biology. The underlying focus on Plants and Taxonomy distinguishes it from other Masters programmes focussed on Conservation and Management.

Because of the fundamental importance of plants in agriculture and as the basis for most food chains, monitoring and understanding of plant communities and access to information about plants are important as never before, especially because of the twin threats of climate change and environmental degradation, which pose unprecedented challenges to human existence and quality of life.

The Programme consists of formal instruction, practical work, essays, research projects and tutorials includes a highly-popular and successful two-week tropical field course in Belize and a 4-month individual research project and dissertation. Further details can be found at http://www.rbge.org.uk/rbge/web/edu/msc_course.jsp.

To apply online: http://www.ed.ac.uk/studying/postgraduate/finder/details.php?id=1