Course description: This half-year graduate course aims to introduce basic gene silencing concepts and research techniques available to address plant virology and biotechnology questions. Students are expected to develop the ability to critically evaluate and interpret published research articles. They will also learn to extract information from international conferences by listening to experts of each field introducing their research.
Course outlines as following:
Part I : Plant virology and biotechnology
1. Overview of plant virology and biotechnology
2. Plant viruses and virus taxonomy
3. Frontier of biotechnology
4. The application of virology in biotechnology
5. Viral suppressors vs. gene silencing
6. Gene silencing vs. biotechnology
Part II: Literature review
7. Latest virology paper discussion