UNIVERSITY OF MADRAS
B.Sc. DEGREE COURSE IN PLANT BIOLOGY AND PLANT BIOTECHNOLOGY
SEMESTER SYSTEM WITH CREDITS
(Effective from the Academic Year 2003-2004)

SYLLABUS

Semester VI - Paper XI - Plant Physiology

Lecture: 4 Hrs

Unit I:

Water relations - diffusion, permeability, osmosis, water potential and its components. Absorption of water - apoplast and symplast. Mechanism - passive and active. Transpiration - types and significance. Factors, Stomatal mechanisms.

Unit II:

Elementary concept of bioenergetics - entropy and free energy. Enzymes:- properties, coenzymes and activators, nomenclature, classification, mode of action, factors. Regulation - feed back inhibition.

Unit III:

Photosynthesis:- radiant energy, Emerson's enhancement effect, pigment systems, Absorption spectrum and Action spectrum, photoelectron transport, photophosphorylation, Calvin cycle, Hatch and Slack pathway, photorespiration.

Respiration :- Aerobic - Glycolysis, Krebs Cycle, electron transport system, oxidative phosphorylation, respiratory quotient.

Unit IV:

Nitrogen assimilation :-Importance of nitrogen in plant life, conversion of nitrate to ammonia by plants, biological nitrogen fixation - nitrogen fixing organisms,legume - Rhizobium symbiosis; synthesis of aminoacids - reductive and transamination.

Unit V:

Growth - Plant growth regulators (auxins, gibberellins, cytokinins, ethylene and abscisic acid) - mechanism of action and Practical application.

Photomorphogenesis - photoperiodism, vernalization, phytochromes. Dormancy (seed and bud), seed viability and germination.