ENVIRONMENTAL BIOTECHNOLOGY AND BIOENERGY PRODUCTION

Environmental Biotechnology:
Responses of Plants To Abiotic Stresses: Stresses involving water deficit, osmotic stress and its role in tolerance to drought and salinity, impact of water deficit and salinity on transport across plant membranes. Freezing stress. Flooding and oxygen deficit. Oxidative stress. Heat/Cold stress.
Plant responses to mineral toxicity: Molecular Physiology of mineral nutrients, acquisition, transport and utilization. Aluminium toxicity, heavy metal ion toxicity (Cd+2, Hg2+, Pb2+).
Phytoremediation approaches to remove soil/water contaminants.

Biotechnologies for Energy production:
Introduction: current energy sources and the necessity of renewable fuels.
Production of bioethanol from ligno-cellulosic biomasses.
Production of biodiesel from oleaginous crops.
Algae as biofuels producers. Evaluation of advantages and disadvantages with respect to plants.
Hydrogen production from algae and bacteria.
The biotechnological challenges for biofuels production: the optimization of conversion of solar into chemical energy.
Examples of genetic engineering for biofuels.
Exploitation of unicellular algae for wastewater treatment and bioremediation.