Welcome to BIOL 340: Plant Physiology

1

• Welcome to BIOL 340 Plant Physiology
• Agenda for Today The Syllabus and Introduction
• Your introductions and notecards
• My information
• Trent Smith, Ph.D. (from the University of South
  Carolina)
• Office EHS 212
• Phone 2704
• Home number listed on syllabus. Dont abuse!
• Office hours Tuesdays 1000 1100 AM and 200
  400 PM. Wednesdays 215 305 PM. Fridays
  1100 1150 AM. Or by drop-in or appointment.

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• Welcome to BIOL 340 Plant Physiology
• Learning and Evaluative methods
• Exams (300 out of 500 points.)
• -First three exams are worth 75 points each,
  covering material new material since the last
  exam. However, some topics build on each
  other, so there will be overlap.
• -The fourth exam is worth 75 points points,
  including a 15-point question that ties to the
  whole semester. It will be given at the time
  for the final exam, Thursday, December 17, at
  800 AM.
• -Otherwise these four exams will be
  non-cumulative (covering only the material
  since the last exam).
• -Review sheets and review sessions will be
  given prior to each exam. Please note that
  review sheets may not cover every question
  possible on exams.

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• Welcome to BIOL 340 Plant Physiology
• Learning and Evaluative methods
• Laboratory (200 points out of 500)
• -Points for each week will be received as you
  attend lab, and complete the worksheets that go
  with each weeks activities. You should also
  turn in a results section with each worksheet
  when appropriate, where you report the data
  from your experiment.
• -The only exception to this will be the group
  project, in which you will work together on a
  project that will take several weeks to
  complete in lab. Credit for this assignment
  will be attained via a presentation to the lab
  detailing your findings and what you learned
  independently about your topic, and a formal
  lab report in the form of a scientific paper.

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• Welcome to GSCI 120 Environmental Science
• Course website
• I may be hosting a site for the class on FoxCT
  this semester. To access this site, go to
  http//cs.georgefox.edu/FoxCT . Click on
  Biology at the left of the screen, and then on
  Plant Physiology. Youll need the password,
  spongy to get into the course page (just the
  first time).
• Downloads
• Review sheets
• PowerPoint lectures
• Alternative address for the course website is
• http//biology.georgefox.edu/tsmith/courses/PPhys
  /home.html

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• What is a Plant?
• Hmmmnow theres an interesting question.
• Most schools used to lump the study of fungi (a
  science now called mycology) in with their botany
  departments, and some schools still do this.
• Are fungi plants?

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• What is a Plant?
• Surely, then we can say that anything that does
  photosynthesis
• is a plant, right?
• Nope. But Im being pickier than
• many people when I say that.
• If you want to know much more
• about it, take systematic botany
• but for now, to be a plant you
• have to have chlorophylls a and b,
• store sugar as starch, and have an ancestor that
  had two
• anterior whiplash flagellae with star-shaped
  bases.

All of these, plus the euglenoids and golden
algae, fall short of these criteria though good
arguments could be made for the inclusion of some
of them (especially red algae.)
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• What is a Plant?
• So what is a plant? My definition includes
  everything from green algae to flowering
  plants, which are considered the most
  advanced plants. Our focus will be on the
  land plants, like ferns, coniferous and
  deciduous trees, grasses, and wildflowers, to
  name a few.

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• Why Study Plants?
• Atmospheric gas regulation
• A. Production of oxygen gas as a by-product
• of photosynthesis. The first oxygen
• producers were thought to be bacteria
• (like todays cyanobacteria), which were
• eventually incorporated as
• endosymbionts into plant ancestors.
• You cant have eukaryotes without
• oxygen (so arent we all glad its there!)
• Maybe well take a field trip
• to an oxygen bar, like this one
• in Seattle, where customers pay
• 1/minute to breath 97 O2.

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• Why Study Plants ?
• Atmospheric gas regulation
• B. Oxygen gas (O2) in the atmosphere is
  converted to ozone (O3)in the stratosphere, as it
  absorbs UV light. Ozone then absorbs more UV
  light and is eventually converted back into
  oxygen gas. This process blocks up to 99 of all
  the harmful UVB rays that would otherwise
  sterilize the surface of the earth impossible, by
  causing so many mutation in anything that
  ventured out of the shade.

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• Why Study Plants?
• C. Utilization of CO2. Plants use carbon
  dioxide to build sugar via the Calvin cycle
  (a.k.a. dark reactions) of photosynthesis.
  Besides being
• toxic to humans at elevated levels
• (as the crew of Apollo 13 nearly
• experienced), CO2 is a greenhouse gas,
  meaning that it
• absorbs infrared
• radiation from earth,
• keeping that energy
• in the atmosphere longer and
  contributing to global
• warming.

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• Why Study Plants?
• Sugars and their polymers
• A. Carbs are the enemy, according to Dr.
  Atkins, right? I dont buy it, but then again
  Im not losing weight, either. Plants give us
  simple sugars as well as starches. Even if your
  on a low-carb diet, you can still thank plants
  for all the leafy greens youre (hopefully)
  eating. And then theres the fact that all the
  meat you eat was part of an animal that probably
  ate plants to live. So almost all our food
  comes
• from plants.

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• Why Study Plants?
• B. Fibers--
• 1. Cotton As George
• Costanza showed the
• Yankees on Seinfeld,
• cotton is king.
• 2. Paper Average paper
• use per person in North America is 2 kg/day.
• 3. Fibers such as nylon and
• rayon are processed from
• wood fibers.

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• Why Study Plants?
• Other molecules
• A. Medicines
• Also noteworthy are aspirin, ephedra (banned),
• quinine, ginkgolides, and others.

Foxglove produces digitalis, which treats
heart disease.
Taxol from the bark of the pacific yew tree is
one of the most promising anti-cancer drugs.
Rosy periwinkle from Madagascar treats two
cancers juvenile leukemia and Hodgkins disease.
Threatened by increasing population.
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• Why Study Plants?
• B. Spices
• C. Oils
• D. Essential amino acids--There are 8 amino
  acids that we need in our cells, but we dont
  have the ability to produce them ourselves.
• We can most easily get them
• from plants. To get the complete
• set of essential amino acids,
• a combination of
• legumes and cereals is best.
• What does that mean?
• E. Fossil fuels like coal, crude oil, and
  natural gas are the products of plants that died
  a long time ago.

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• Why Study Plants?
• F. I would be remiss not to mention one of the
  most economically and culturally important other
  molecules that is
• made from
• plants
• alcohol.

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• Why Study Plants?
• Fun
• A. Christmas!
• 1. Deck the halls with bows of holly!
• 2. Mistletoe!
• B. Fun with Grapes!

Procedure The authors carefully cleared the
laboratories of all non-essential personnel,
especially those persons who might attempt to
abort the experiment while the grapes were still
in the pre-combustion phase. Next, the grapes
were carefully prepared for proper theatrical
effect. The knife was used to carefully slice
the grape almost in half, leaving the grape
halves attached by the skin. Next, the grapes
halves were placed face down in the middle of
the microwave safe plate (Figure 1).
Next, the plate with the prepared grapes were
placed into the center of the microwave oven and
the door carefully shut. The microwave was set
to cook at full power for 40 seconds. Finally,
after the various recording devices were in
place, the start button on the microwave was
engaged.
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As can be seen from figure 2, the effect of the
microwaves on the sliced grapes produced an
extremely satisfying flare and associated
sparks. The photographic quality of figure 2 is
slightly deteriorated due to the poor
lighting conditions at the time of the
experiment.
The sparks began approximately 5 seconds after
the microwave was started. Approximately 3-4
seconds after that, the force of the sparks
separated the grape halves by approximately 1.5
cm, ending the theatrical effects.
At that point the microwave session was aborted
to prevent further damage to the microwave and/or
grape. The post-combusted grape is shown in
figure 3. Enjoy our class as we study how plants
work!