General laboratory safety: dos and don'ts, lab safety measures, code of conduct in laboratory, safe handling of chemicals, glass apparatus, instruments, electrical appliances; First aid practices (acid spills, burns and other injuries), safety symbols, classes/ grades of chemicals, Laboratory waste management: radioactive, hazardous chemicals and biological wastes.

Weighing balance, pipettes and micropipettes, magnetic stirrer, autoclave, laminar airflow, pH and conductivity meter (calibration and use), Incubator (static and shaker), Lux meter, hemocytometer, micrometer, spectrophotometer, Agarose gel electrophoresis unit, SDS PAGE unit, centrifuge, distillation unit.

Units of measurements, conversion from one unit to another, Weighing, calculations: scientific notations, powers, logarithm and fractions; measurement of volumes of liquids.

Preparation of solutions: stock solution, standard solution. Types of solutions: Normal, Molar, Molal, Percentage, ppm, ppb. Dilution and dilution factors, Acids, Bases, adjustment of pH, Buffers - phosphate, Tris - HCl and Citrate buffer.

Microscopes: working principles and types (Light and Electron microscopes), sample and slide preparation: fixation, staining, mounting, preservation (for light and electron microscopy).

Basic culture media (NA, NB, PDA, MS), selective and differential media, Culture techniques: plating (streak, spread & pour), serial dilution.

Data types - primary and secondary, methods of data collection, sample and sampling methods - merits and demerits; technical and biological replicates; Tabulation and presentation of data, Descriptive statistics - Mean, Median, Mode, Variance, Standard Deviation, Standard error, Coefficient of Variation,

MS - Word, PowerPoint, Excel, concept on biological databases.

Collection, Identification, Preparation and Preservation of Herbarium and Museum specimens.

• Preparation of solutions - molar, molal, normal, percentage, stock solution and dilution
• Measurement of pH of solutions using pH meter/ pH strip and preparation of buffers (Phosphate /citrate buffer)
• Working with instruments - Centrifuge, autoclave, laminar air flow, hot air oven, incubator, light microscope, spectrophotometer/colorimeter,
• Slide preparation and staining of plant materials.
• Determination of cell/spore size using micrometer.
• Preparation of PDA/NA medium for growth and maintenance of fungal/bacterial cultures.
• Calculation of mean, mode, median, standard deviation using data set.
• Drawing of tables, graphs and to carry out statistical calculation using Microsoft Excel.
• Preparation of herbarium specimen: Collection, processing, mounting, and labelling of plant specimen.

Water Potential and its components; Water absorption by roots: aquaporins; Pathway of water movement: symplast, apoplast, transmembrane pathways; Ascent of sap: Mechanisms, cohesion - tension theory, root pressure, guttation; Transpiration: Factors affecting transpiration, anti - transpirants, mechanism of stomatal movement.

Criteria for essentiality of mineral elements, macro and micronutrients, nutrient solutions for plant growth experiments, roles of essential elements, mineral deficiency symptoms, chelating agents, Ion antagonism and toxicity. Soil as a nutrient reservoir; Transport of ions across cell membrane: Passive and active absorption, electrochemical gradient, facilitated diffusion, carrier systems, proton ATPase pump and ion flux, uniport, symport, antiport, co - transport.

Phloem as the path of organic solute translocation: Experimental evidences, Mechanisms of solute transport, Pressure - Flow Model and Munch’s hypothesis, Phloem loading and unloading, Source - sink relationship.

Discovery, chemical nature (basic structure), bioassay and physiological roles of Auxins, Gibberellins, Cytokinins, Abscisic acid, Ethylene, Brassinosteroids and Jasmonic acid; Synthetic PGRs; Application of PGRs in agriculture and horticulture.

Photoperiodism: SDPs and LDPs, flowering stimulus, florigen concept; Vernalization; Photoreceptors: Phytochrome, cryptochrome and phototropin; Discovery, chemical nature, mechanism of action, role in photomorphogenesis, low energy responses (LER) and high irradiance responses (HIR); Seed dormancy: Significances, causes of dormancy, mechanisms to break dormancy.

Abiotic and biotic stress: Plants’ responses to drought, water logging, salinity, heavy metals, freezing, heat stress and pathogen attack. Oxidative stress: Generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS); Effect of ROS on metabolism; ROS detoxification mechanisms in plants; Stress mitigation strategies (Enzymatic and non - enzymatic).

• Determination of osmotic potential of plant cell sap by the method of plasmolysis.
• Determination of water potential of given tissue (e.g., potato tuber) by weight method.
• Study of the effect of sunlight on the rate of transpiration in excised twig/leaf.
• Calculation of stomatal index and stomatal frequency from the two surfaces of leaves of mesophyte/ xerophyte.
• Effect of carbon dioxide concentration on the rate of photosynthesis.
• To study the effect of different concentrations of IAA on Gram/Pea/Moong root (IAA Bioassay).
• Determination of seed germination percentage in different physical conditions (Demonstration)
• To demonstrate water stress by application of PEG/ water withdrawal in germinating seeds /growing plants (Demonstration)
• Fruit ripening/Rooting from cuttings (Demonstration).