B026855 - PRACTICE IN AGRO-ENVIRONMENTAL BIOTECHNOLOGY

English

(a) A biotechnological approach for an ecosustainable production of energy from lignocellulosic residues; (b) Pathogenicity determinants unveiled: from in silico analysis to mutagenesis and functional characterization; (c) Genetic transformation: a powerful tool to implement adaptive traits in plants.

Scientific articles provided by the Academic staff on digital support (Moodle) and independent research by the students on scientific databases and ISI journals online.

Providing theoretical-practical tools and evaluation elements to tackle with multidisciplinary approach some issues of interest of agri-environmental biotechnologies, outlining possible solutions starting from the acquired skills and from bibliographic research on the most recent scientific-technical literature

It is strongly recommended to have acquired the knowledge related to the courses of the three previous semesters of the CLM BIO-EMSA

Lectures / Seminars = CFU 1 (8 hours)
Laboratory = CFU 5 (40 hours)
The course is based on some introductory lectures and on following collective meetings for the contextualization of the lab work done and the verification of the experimental protocols adopted. The activities in the lab will be carried out in single or in groups of two.

Compulsory attendance for lab activities

Written report and oral examination with a presentation (15 min) on the international scientific context in which the experience is located, on the experimental activities carried out and on the results obtained, discussing the possible applications in the agro-environmental field

Topic (a)
Lectures:
-Anaerobic digestion
-options for process valorization through photosynthetic microorganisms
Laboratory:
-experimental design and protocol preparation
-biogas measurement and gas-chromatography
-selection of photosynthetic microorganisms for the valorization of the process
Topic (b)
Lectures:
- Mutagenesis techniques for Gram negative and positive bacteria, materials and instruments, including bioinformatics.
Laboratory:
- Design of an experimental scheme of site-directed mutagenesis
- Sequence analysis and primers drawing for construct construction
- Production of the recombinant construct and its verification
- Production of mutants and their verification
- Genotypic and phenotypic analysis of the mutants obtained.
Topic (c)
Lectures:
- The plant genetic transformation: practical and theoretical aspects and strategies, from the construct assemblage to plant regeneration and assessment.
Laboratory
- analysis of the bioinformatic and practical aspects of the assemblage of a construct in a binary vector
-in vitro plant propagation
-setting up of an experiment of agrobacterium mediated genetic transformation
-genetic analyses to assess the transformation event