Bioresources

This course deals with recent developments in the agronomy of biomass production, methods for classical and marker-assisted plant breeding, and metabolic engineering of biosynthetic pathways. There will be special attention for multi-purpose crops such as hemp, potato, sugar beet, maize, chicory and miscanthus. Agronomic criteria for best suitable crops will be analysed at the level of the individual crop, the farming system and the region, and this will be viewed in the light of their ecological footprint. Several aspects of classical and molecular breeding for quality of biobased (dedicated) crops will be explained and discussed. Strategies for characterization of genes and metabolic pathways leading to high value compounds will be discussed.

• Quantitatively analyze productivity of biomass crops, ecological sustainability and yields of the different crop components

• Explain the principles of on-farm conservation and on-farm pre-processing of biomass

• Understand the basics of breeding for quality of biomass and development of Multi-purpose crops

• Understand the basics of the metabolic pathways leading to the most important bio-resource components and principles of metabolic engineering

• Written test with open and closed questions (60%)
• Assignment essay (40%)

BCT23806 or PPH10806 or MIB20306, MOB20306.

• - Plant Physiology: Biology of Plants, (Evert and Eichhorn, eds), 8th edition: Chapter 2, Chapter 3, pp 38- 62, Chapter 4, Chapter 10. - Plant Breeding: Principles of Plant Genetics and Breeding (Acquaah, ed) chapters 1 and 2; and Introduction to Genetic analysis (Griffiths, Wessler, Carroll and Doebley, eds) chapter 2, 3, 4 and 6. - Agronomy: Module 2 of the PAME website, which is a module from the 1st block (Principles of Crop Ecology) of the course CSA10806 Introduction Quantitative Agroecology (co-ordinator Lammert Bastiaanse, teacher Gerrie van de Ven). The PAME website is accessible at http://www.pame.wur.nl (click on XS2ALL, then access module 2).