UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): 1, 13, 16

The module teaches a broad spectrum of knowledge about physiology, genetics, molecular biology, and evolution of bacteria. It has also a strong focus on technical skills and a variety of methods. After successfully completing this module, students will be able to identify, formulate, and discuss subject specific questions and hypotheses; they are able to design experimental strategies to test their hypotheses and to plan and conduct experiments independently.

Contents:
The content and topic of this course revolves around leaf surface microbiology. Leaf surfaces are a great example for natural habitats that are colonised by bacteria. For this course, novel bacterial strains were isolated from plant leaf surfaces and will be further characterised using classical microbiological and molecular methods, as well as whole-genome sequencing and bioinformatics to assemble and annotate bacterial genomes. To give context to the characterisation of leaf-associated bacterial isolates, the lecture series and seminars will focus on current methods in microbial ecology, genomics and phyllosphere microbiology.

The examination will be in form of a lab report.