Modelling biological systems
Biological systems are arguably the most complex systems science tries to understand. We make observations, and try to obtain useful insight in the systems. This requires hypotheses; ideas of how we believe the world around us is structured and operates. Models translate our hypotheses into concrete predictions about our objects of study that can be
Agroecology and Agronomy 1
The course focuses on the mutual relation between crop production and environment and consists of two pillars: a. basic principles of crop production ecology, b. sustainability of crop production. The first pillar consists of basic knowledge on how a-biotic (e.g. radiation, temperature, nutrients) and biotic (e.g. pests, diseases and weed) factors influence the productivity of
Breeding for Stress Tolerance and Quality
In current agriculture, abiotic and biotic stress are the main reasons that yield potential and quality aspects are difficult to realize for many crops. Resistance breeding focuses on the use of genetic resources for improving plant defence against stress factors. Breeding for biotic stress resistance addresses with defence mechanisms and strategies that protect host plants
Reproduction of Plants
Sexual reproduction is one of the major characteristics of eukaryotes and involves a regular alternation between meiosis and fertilization. This course focuses on the basic principles of plant reproduction and the evolution of reproductive strategies in mosses, ferns, gymnosperms and angiosperms. This knowledge is used as basis to understand the concepts that underlie sexual reproduction
Algorithms in Bioinformatics
Modern biology routinely generates huge amounts of data: sequences, from NGS experiments; quantitative data, from -omics experiments; and graphs, representing molecular interactions. At the heart of many bioinformatics applications are algorithms that handle such types of data in time- and memory-efficient ways. Almost invariably these algorithms optimize some criterion – e.g. alignment quality, energy function
Data Analysis for Plant and Animal Breeding
Data analysis is central to both plant and animal breeding, and the size and complexity of phenotypic and genomic data sets continue to increase. Thus, the ability to analyze and interpret such large data sets is an essential skill for breeders, both in science and industry. In this course you will become familiar with state-of-the-art
Fundamentals of Genetics
the Genetic and Molecular Biological Approach to Biology; single-gene inheritance; independent assortment of genes; mapping eukaryote chromosomes by recombination; gene interaction; transcription, processing and translation of RNA in Eukaryotes; regulation of eukaryotic gene expression; genomes and genomics; large-scale chromosomal changes; gene isolation and manipulation; population genetics; inheritance of complex traits.
Population and Quantitative Genetics
Life on earth shows immense variation, both in phenotypes and the underlying genotypes. Population and quantitative geneticists address questions such as where this variation comes from, how it is maintained, and how it can be used. This course introduces seminal models and concepts that deal with the dynamics of genetic variation, and applies these to
Soil-Plant Relations
Plant roots absorb water and nutrients from the root medium. The bio-availability of these growth factors is determined by a variety of biological, physical and chemical processes and properties. The plant itself affects these processes and soil properties in its rhizosphere. The interactions between the plant and its root environment represent the core of theory
Modelling Functional Diversity in Crop Production
The last century, agriculture has been characterised by control and specialization: monocrops being grown with intensive use of fertilizers and pesticides. But environmental concerns, disease and pest resistance to pesticides and finite availability of resources call for a change in strategy. Diversity both in terms of utilizing different crop species and in combining different ecology-based