Integrative Biology 102: Lecture Outline
Plants Used to Feed the World

Lecture Objectives:

By the end of the lecture (and after some work with the text), you should be able to: 
  1. identify where energy is stored in seeds, stems and roots.
  2. explain how artificial selection has changed the characteristics of domesticated plants.
  3. draw and label a diagram of a monocot seed and a eudicot seed.
  4. give the function of each of the parts of a seed.
  5. describe the growth sequence in a germinating seed.
  6. explain why seeds are good sources of nutrition.
  7. list the four plants most eaten by the world population.
  8. describe the types of environment where wheat, maize, rice, cassava, and millet are grown.
  9. explain "center of origin" and list the centers of origin for each of the plants covered in the lecture.
  10. explain what the "doomsday vault" is and why it is important for future food security.
  11. identify which part of each plant is eaten.

Readings: Ch. 9.2, page 184 and in Plants & Society, pages 91, 188-189, 193, 198-203, and 221-231.


Terms:
  • tuber
  • green manure
  • genome
  • endosperm
  • pulses
  • groundnut
  • stem cutting
  • cotyledon
  • "eye"
  • farinha
  • tuberous root
  • domestication

Movies:
Radish seeds germinating
Manioc processing (starts about half-way through video)
NBC News:  Tour of Doomsday Vault
Doomsday Vault Protects World's Seeds on 60 Minutes
Biodiveristy Agriculture
 
Sites:
International Year of the Potato (2008)
History and Origin of the Potato
Local Crop Diversity Trust
Global Seed Vault

1. Plants that power the world

Plant
Reason for ranking









2. Where energy is stored
 
 
 

















3.   Artificial selection and plant domestication






4.  Grains
























5. Pulses










6.  Tubers and Roots

















For the next lecture on Flowering Plant Reproduction, read Ch. 5 in Plant & Society by Levetin & McMahon online in Moodle and be ready to answer these questions in lecture: