Resource Image

Plant Defenses and Bioprospecting Mini-case Study

Author(s): John Anthony Barone

Columbus State University

957 total view(s), 500 download(s)

0 comment(s) (Post a comment)

Summary:
This narrative mini-case study for use in undergraduate ecology courses reviews plant defense theory within the context of bioprospecting. Students learn about factors affecting plant defenses and how to search for bioactive compounds.

Licensed under CC Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International according to these terms

Version 1.0 - published on 27 May 2019 doi:10.25334/Q4PT7G - cite this

Description

The mini-case study puts students in the role of helping indigenous people in the Amazon basin in search for bioactive compounds. The case study would work best after a lecture/discussion on plant chemical defenses. The case study reviews part of the resource availability hypothesis and how the Kirby-Bauer test can be use to see if extracts from plant leaves can be bioactive. Students measure zones of inhibition of the worksheet to collect "data". Rulers must be supplied. The exercise ends with take home or in class discussion questions.

Cite this work

Researchers should cite this work as follows: