Bioinformatics

General skills A modern plant pathologist has to face this complex reality, plan experiments at real scale, "sucks the marrow out of -omics" (par. Walt Whitman) by using bioinformatics tools, individuate biocontrol agents and stimulate plant self-defences. In relation to this, the main aim of this course is forming young scientists in managing plant diseases tout court by the mean of the -omics plus bioinformatics tools Specific skills A) Knowledge and understanding - Introduction to Plant Pathology: the concept of disease - The Pathogens: from virus to fungi, different strategies for different pathogens - The Pathobiome concept - Integrated Pest Management: how to couple food security with food safety - Pathogenomics; how genomics meets pathogen B) Applying knowledge and understanding - how using specific terminology of a plant pathologist - Identify the main factors causing disease in major crops - Establish the salient features of a cycle of infection of a pathogen - Identify important activities and genes in plant resistance - Identify the important activities and genes in the virulence of pathogens - Outline novel strategies for controlling plant diseases C) Making judgements - Identification of new perspectives / development strategies for the protection of crops - Evaluation, interpretation and reprocessing of literature data in the field of molecular plant-microbe interactions D) Communication skills - Ability to illustrate the results of research and experimentation carried out in the context of the exercises - Ability to understand manuscripts in English and to indicate the salient features of the oral exam E) Learning skills - Learn the specific terminology of plant pathologist - Logically connect the acquired knowledge in the field of molecular plant-microbe interactions - Identify the most relevant topics of the subjects dealt with - how consulting specialist databases (e.g. ncbi, kegg, string, uniprot)