NBIK13016U Mycology

- To provide an understanding of the biology, diversity, life-styles and nutritional modes of the main fungal lineages
- To identify the main interactions between fungi and plants and fungi and insects
- To develop practical skills for growing fungi in pure cultures and perform simple growth and mating experiments
- To obtain knowledge of molecular marker selection, molecular detection and current metagenomic tools.


Knowledge:
By the end of the course students are expected to:
describe the diversity of fungi in the light of phylogeny, life-styles and nutritional modes
explain how fungi interact with plants and insects in beneficial and harmful ways
critically evaluate different (molecular) methods for detection of specific fungi, detecting the genetic variation in populations and identifying species in complex communities
discuss, put into perspective, and criticize original research papers in modern mycology

Skills:
work experimentally with fungi including growing, transferring and setting up small experiments with fungi in pure culture
use their acquired knowledge of microbial diversity and ecology in designing identification, detection of species in communities or individuals in populations

Competencies:
By participating in this course the students should be able to integrate knowledge of fungal diversity its broadest sense into designing and perform appropriate solutions to specific questions within mycology. In doing this, students should be able to take into the consideration the complexities of the system i.e. phylogenetic and functional diversity and the interacting with other organisms and with the environment. Students should be able to put fungi into general ecological, biological and microbial ecological contexts.