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CONTACT DETAILS |
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Department of Plant Sciences
University of Colombo
P.O.Box 1490, Colombo 03
Sri Lanka
Phone : +94(0)11 2585038
Fax : +94(0)11 2503148
Email: office@pts.cmb.ac.lk |
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FIRST YEAR - PLANT SCIENCE SYLLABUS |
The following course units are offered by the Department of Plant Sciences for the first year students
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| BT 1001: VARIETY OF PLANT LIFE (15L, 1C) |
Dependencies: None
Syllabus: Plants of the past and present: primitive aquatic life: Cyanophyta and Algae, life on land; challenges of a terrestrial environment, first land plants; Bryophyta, early vascular plants; Psilopsida, Lycopsida, Sphenopsida, advanced vascular plants; Pteropsida; Filicinae, Gymnosperms and Angiosperms; Success achieved by land flora; vascularization, seed habit, mutualism among plants; lichens, mycorrhizae, nitrogen fixation. Flora of Sri Lanka: Affinities, vegetation types and distribution, threatened, endemic, introduced and naturalized plants. Identification and nomenclature of Angiosperms/ flowering plants: Familiarization with taxonomic literature and herbarium specimens.
Assessment: End of semester theory examination .
Suggested Reading : Green Plants: Their Origin and Diversity ( Bell P. R., Woodcock C. F.)1983; Biology Of Plants (Raven P.R., Evert R.F. and Eichhorn S.E.) 1999; Natural Resources Of Sri Lanka National Science Foundation, Colombo, 2000.
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| BT 1002: CELL BIOLOGY (15L, 1C) |
Dependencies: None
Syllabus: Introduction to Cell Biology: Biology of cells of higher organisms; Structural organization of bio membrane: Lipids- classes of membrane lipids, hydrophobic interactions, universality of the lipid bilayer, proteins- types of membrane proteins, integral proteins, trans-membrane proteins, peripheral proteins, carbohydrates- glycolipids, glycoproteins; Fluid mosaic model of bio membranes; Transport across cell membranes: Principles of membrane transport, diffusion, passive diffusion, facilitated diffusion, active transport, carrier & channel proteins, transporters, uni-porters, co-transporters, primary & secondary active transport, symporter, anti-porter, transport systems functioning in animal & plant cells; Cell to cell signaling: membrane receptors and signaling, cell surface receptors and signal transduction, G-protein linked, enzyme linked, ion channel linked receptors, second messengers, cAMP, Ca ++ signaling pathways, Examples of cell surface receptors in heart muscles, insulin receptors.
Assessment: End of semester theory examination.
Suggested Reading: Molecular Cell Biology (Lodish, H., Berck, A., Zipursky, S.L., Matsudaira, P., Baltimore, D. and Darnell, J.) 2000, 4 th ed.; Molecular Biology of the Cell (Alberts, B., Bray, D., Lewis, J., Raff, M., Roberts, K. and Watson, J.D.) 1994, 3 rd ed.
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| BT 1003: GENETICS (15L, 1C) |
Dependencies: None
Syllabus: Fundamentals of Mendelian genetics: Principles of segregation and independent assortment; Chromosomes and heredity: Cell cycle, mitosis, meiosis; Extensions of Mendelian genetics: Dominance, lethals, multiple genes and epistasis, pleiotropy, penetrance and expressivity, multiple alleles, quantitative inheritance, genes on the X-chromosome, sex-limited and sex-influenced inheritance; Linkage and chromosome mapping: Incomplete linkage, crossing over and chromosome mapping, somatic cell hybridization and human gene mapping, haploid organisms in mapping studies; Chromosome number variation and sex-determination: Variation in sex chromosome complements in humans and syndromes, chromosome composition and sex determination in Drosophila, aneuploidy & polyploidy; Variation in chromosome structure and arrangement: Deletions, duplications, inversions and translocations, fragile sites in humans; Gene mutations: Types of gene mutations, somatic vs. germline mutations; The genetics of mitochondria and chloroplasts.
Assessment: End of semester theory examination.
Suggested Reading: An Introduction to Genetic Analysis ( Griffiths, A. J., Miller, J.H., Suzuki, D.T., Lawontin, R.C. and Gilbert, W.M.) 1996; 6 th ed., Concepts of Genetics (Klug, W.S. and Cummings, M.R.) 1986; Principles of Genetics ( Gardner, E.J. and Snustad, D.P.) 1994; Genetics (Weaver, R.F. and Hedrick, P.W.) 1997.
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| BT 1004: PRACTICAL COURSE (30P, 2C) |
Syllabus: Includes laboratory practicals of BT 1001 (Variety of Plant Life), BT 1002 (Cell Biology), BT 1003 (Genetics), BT 1005 (Microbial Life), BT1007 (Plant Propagation) and BT 1008 (Plant Resources).
Assessment: Practical examination at the end of the semester and / or continuous assessments.
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| BT 1005: MICROBIAL LIFE (15L, 1C) |
Dependencies: None
Syllabus: General characters: Characters of Fungi, Bacteria and Viruses; Classification and identification; Growth and differentiation: Mechanism of growth, kinetics of growth; Nutrition and metabolism: Carbon and energy sources, energy production, biosynthesis, translocation and storage compounds; Environmental conditions for growth: Temperature, pH, aeration, water, light; Habits: Endophytic, parasitic and saprophytic habits; Importance of microbial diversity to biotechnology; Conservation and management of microbial gene pools.
Assessment: End of semester theory examination.
Suggested Reading: Introductory Mycology (Alexopoulos, C.J., Mims, C.W. and Blackwell, M.) 1995; Biodiversity of Microbial Life (Staley, J.T. and Reysenbach, A. L.) 2001.
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| BT 1006: PLANT STRUCTURE (15L/30P, 2C) |
Dependencies: None
Syllabus: Introduction: Growth in the plant body; Cells and tissues of the plant body: Primary tissues, principal categories of tissues, tissue systems; Angiosperm shoot apex organization; Angiosperm root apex organization; Primary structure of the stem: Herbaceous dicot stems, woody dicot stems, monocot stems; Primary structure of the root: Dicot root structure, monocot root structure; Leaf structure: Tissue systems in a leaf, dicot leaf internal structure, monocot leaf, leaf abscission; Secondary growth: Structure and activity of the vascular cambium, secondary growth in woody dicot and conifer stems, secondary growth in dicot and conifer roots, activity of the cork cambium; Wood: Structure and composition of dicot and conifer wood; Ecological anatomy.
Assessment: End of semester theory examination and practical examination.
Suggested Reading: Anatomy of Seed Plants (Esau, K.) 2 nd ed.; Plant Anatomy (Pandey,B.P.) 1996; Biology of Plants (Raven, P., Ray E. and Eichhorn S.E.); A Colour Atlas of Plant Structure (Bowes, B. G.)1997.
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| BT 1007: PLANT PROPAGATION (15L, 1C) |
Dependencies: None
Syllabus: Introduction: Objectives, basic methods; Growing media / Rooting media and media mixes: Preparation, soil sterilization / treatment; Seed propagation: Botanical seed, advantages of seed propagation, seed sowing, transplanting of seedlings, seedling diseases, seed treatment, hybrid seeds, Orchid seeds, artificial seeds, seed processing and storage; Vegetative propagation: Plant regeneration, cloning, advantages of vegetative propagation; Techniques: - (i) Propagation by specialized vegetative structures, “seed tubers” (ii) Propagation by cuttings - rooting of cuttings, rooting hormones, anatomical and physiological basis of rooting, types of cuttings (iii) Propagation by layering (iv) Grafting and Budding (v) Micropropagation; Mist propagation.
Assessment: End of semester theory examination.
Suggested Reading: Plant Propagation (Hartman, H.T., Kester, D.E., Davies, F.T. and Geneve, R.L.) 1997; Orchid Growing in the Tropics - Chapter 4 (Orchid Society of South East Asia) 1994; Media Mixes for Container Grown Plants (Bunt, A.C.) 1998; Plant Propagation and Conservation (Bowes, B.G.)1999.
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| BT 1008: PLANT RESOURCES (15L, 1C) |
Dependencies: None
Syllabus: Renewable and non-renewable resources; Traditional uses and potentials: Source of food, medicinal plants, drugs and essential oils, wood and wood products, industrial production of natural products, use in Agriculture, plants as an alternative energy source and as environment sensors; Sustainable utilization and Conservation of plants.
Assessment: End of semester theory examination.
Suggested Reading: Tropical Crops: Monocotyledons and Dicotyledons (Purseglove, J. W.) 1969; Tropical Crops: Text Book of Economic Botany (Kochhar, S. L.) 1981.
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