Basic Plant Molecular Techniques

Primarily aimed at researchers (PhD students or Postdocs) who are new to the area of molecular biology, are somewhat familiar but require a quick updating, or would like to have more practical bench training.

This intense 5 day course will focus on several techniques widely used in molecular analysis as: DNA and RNA isolation, agarose gel electrophoresis, PCR, reverse transcriptase, real time qPCR for detection of gene expression, and bioinformatic tools (Primer3) for primer design. The real time qPCR method taught includes computer-aided data analysis for determining the relative gene expression levels in the plant samples.

The course includes lectures with theoretical background and hands-on exercises of the different techniques in the molecular laboratory of Molecular Interaction Ecology. Discussion among the participants and the trainers will be focused on when and why each procedure would be used, the importance of each step in the procedure, and approaches to troubleshooting.The participants are expected to submit a report after the course.