Courses Organized and Taught

• PPA 500, Physiology of Plant Health and Disease (2 semester hours), organized by C.L. Schardl, and team-taught. Major teaching objectives: To provide first-semester graduate students and upperclass undergraduates with a sophisticated appreciation of the interactions of plants with microbes, viruses and the environment. The course focuses on physiological, biochemical and genetic aspects of these interactions, and explores how microbes may promote or degrade plant health; how plant viruses transmit, replicate and cause disease; how plants respond to biotic and abiotic stresses; how plants defend against pathogens; and modern approaches to disease management and risk assessment.

• ABT 460, Introduction to Molecular genetics (3 semester hours). Molecular genetics is the study of the biochemical basis of heredity and focuses on the structure and expression of DNA at the molecular and cellular level. The course provides a detailed understanding of the biochemical events involved in genome replication, prokaryotic and eukaryotic transcription, and translation of DNA, as well as RNA processing, recombination and the theoretical underpinnings of genetic engineering.