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Cell and Molecular Biology  

Biotechnology is based on recent knowledge arising from cell and molecular biology, which gives this technology great importance in agriculture. This enhancement appears not only in the improvement of existing varieties or cultivars, but also in the achievement of new plants with different genetic characteristics and adaptable to environmental stresses. 

Plant Growth and Development Control

The development of plants comprises the physiological processes of growth and differentiation. Plant vegetative growth involves seed germination, seedling emergence, growth, tillering, branching, longevity, and organs or plant senescence. Meanwhile, the reproductive growth starts with floral induction, evocation and initiation, growth and establishment of the flower and fruit and maturation of the fruit. This first explanation evidences that these processes are all integrated and time-spatially controlled in the plant, influencing its reproduction and productivity. The morphological aspects and the regulation systems (metabolic, hormonal, and environmental) of the development of cultivable plants are related to the quantity and quality of the products used. Species and cultivars used in regional agroecosystems present various growth, development, and behavior problems regarding environmental conditions.

Seed Physiology

Seeds are the primary means of multiplication of numerous cultivated and wild species. Farm income is subject to the availability of seeds of high genetic and physiological quality as well as high physical purity. The use of high quality seeds at sowing is essential to achieve high productivity. The identification of the problems that affect seed quality is of major technical, scientific, and economic significance.

Mineral Nutrition and Plant Metabolism

Plant production is directly influenced by many energy aspects such as solar radiation and temperature and is also dependent on environment-acquired substances such as water, oxygen, carbon, and mineral salts. The absorption and utilization of energy regulate the processes related to plant growth and life. Photosynthetic and respiratory rates determine net assimilation, which leads to primary production (biomass) and which, in turn, will be expressed in economic terms. This line of research is supported by projects primarily related to photosynthesis, environmental stresses and the metabolism of the major nutrients.

Productivity, Translocation and Partitioning of Assimilates

The productivity of a crop depends on a number of complex interrelationships between individual plants, plant community, and the environment. In compliance with the genetic potential, those relations are expressed through physiological processes that result in plant growth and development.

Course List – 1st Semester
Nucleic acid: Structure and Gene Regulation
Plant Biochemistry I
Plant Biotechnology: Tissue and Cell Culture
Plant Growth and Development
Supervised Teaching Practice
Plant Experimentation
Plant Physiology Lab II
Molecular Markers in Plants
Research in Plant Physiology
Electrophoresis Principles and Applications
Special Issues in Plant Physiology
Seminar in Plant Physiology

List of Courses – 2nd Semester
Physiology of Mineral Nutrition
Plant Anatomy
Plant Biochemistry II
Physicochemistry Applied to Plant Physiology
Physiology of Plant Production
Physiology of Plant Stress
Seed Physiology
Plant Physiology Lab I
Plants Metabolism
Research in Plant Physiology
Water-Plant Relationship
Seminar in Plant Physiology
Genetic Transformation and Molecular Characterization of Plants

Cell and Molecular Biology
Eugenia Jacira Bolacel Braga
José Antonio Peters
Valmor João Bianchi

Plant Growth and Development Control
Eugenia Jacira Bolacel Braga
José Antonio Peters
Valmor João Bianchi
Leonardo Dutra

Seed Physiology
Dario Munt de Moraes

Mineral Nutrition and Plant Metabolism
Luciano do Amarante
Marcos Antonio Baccarin
Sidnei Deuner

Productivity, Translocation and Partitioning of Assimilates
Marcos Antonio Baccarin
Sidnei Deuner