Plant diseases have a major impact on the yield and quality of the plant products that we consume and use indirectly as feed, fibre or energy. The development of post genomics technologies is making a substantial contribution to the means by which we can study plant pathogens and provide knowledge for combating diseases. The goal of the course is to ensure that the students obtain a holistic view of plant-pathogen interactions through an appreciation of the impact of recently obtained knowledge with respect to gene expression in the host, the pathogen and the in different plant-pathogen interactions.
In this course, basic overviews of the technologies and methods in data analysis will be introduced. Presentation of specific research projects and results dealing with the use of these methods to study plant-pathogen interactions will demonstrate the utility of these approaches. We believe that this course will provide the basis by which individual students will be able to adopt these methods in their own research project.