Corsi di studio in
Farmacia - Chimica e tecnologia farmaceutiche

This course is intended as an introduction to plant biology academic programs. This course also stresses the history of Plant Biology and the relationship with other science disciplines.
Note : As far as this course is devoted to students of School of Pharmacy, all cell components are  presented in health promotion, e.g. “Why we study the cell wall ?” or “Why we study carotenoids ?”

Goals of the course are to remove all vestiges of zoocentrism from students’ mindset, to be able to distinguish the plant from other life forms, understand why plants are the life source for food and oxygen for all organisms on earth, understand the significance of the diplobiontic life cycle of plants, appreciate the biochemical workings of plants including those of photosynthesis, cell respiration, and hormone action.

The student will acquire the general principles of the functioning of a plant cell (Cytology) and of the organization of cells into tissues (Histology) and will get the basics to deal with the subsequent study of Anatomy and Systematics in Pharmaceutical Botany.

1. Introduction to Plant Biology
1. Themes that connect the concepts of biology:
1. Evolution and its connection with taxonomy
2. The history of life on Earth (with a special focus on the diversity of plants)
3. Levels of biological hierarchy
4. Interaction between organism and their enviroment
5. Structure/function correlation
6. Cell as fondamental unit of organisms
7. The continuity of life: transmission of inheritable information form of DNA
8. Biological systems regulation
2. Differences between plants and animals
3. Approaches to the study of plants
4. Significance of plant organisms in the enviroment
2. The chemistry of life
1. Water and life
2. Structure and function in plants of macromolecules (lipids, carbohydrates, proteins, nucleic acids)
3. Citology
1. Comparison between animal cell and plant cell
2. Common structures of animal cell and plant cell (cytoplasm, cytoskeleton, ribosomes, endoplasmic reticulum, Golgi apparatus, mitochondria, nucleus)
3. Structures characteristhic only of the plant cell:
1. Plastids (chloroplasts, chromoplasts, leucoplasts)
2. Vacuole and osmotic pressure
3. Cell wall
4. An Introduction to Metabolism
1. Photosynthesis
2. Plant nutrition: absorption of minerals from the roots, carbon cycle, nitrogen cycle and phosphorus cycle
5. Cell division and reproduction
1. Mithosis and meiosis
2. Asexual and sexual reproduction
3. Metagenetic and onthogenetic cycles
4. Grown control (apoptosis and hormone control)
6. Histology
   1. Meristematic tissues
   2. Adult tissues:
      1. Dermal
      2. Mechanical
      3. Parenchyma
      4. Vascular
      5. Laticiferous
7. Hints of In vitro plant cell cultures