Dagon University

The module includes two main parts that provide a foundational understanding of pteridophytes and gymnosperms. Pteridophyta is a group of plants with feather like appearance. This group includes higher cryptogams which are also known as vascular cryptogams. The term cryptogam was suggested by Linnaeus in 1754 for all non-flowering plants that reproduce by means of spores and not by seeds. The term vascular indicates the presence of vascular tissue for conduction of water and food. Vascular cryptogams or pteridophytes can be defined as an assemblage of seedless vascular plants that have successfully invaded the land and reproduce by means of spores. Gymnosperms means naked seed plants because the ovules are not enclosed by a surrounding carpel layer at the time of pollination. Gymnosperms are essentially non-flowering seed plants.

Plants are indispensable to life on Earth and human survival. This course provides a comprehensive introduction to the fundamental roles of plants play in sustaining life on Earth. Topics include importance of plants for food, oxygen and ecosystem health, plant diversity, plants reproduction and growth, plant ecology, importance of plants, plant nutrition and photosynthesis.

Ecology is the branch of science that studies the relationships between organisms, their habitat and all the living and non-living factors involved in those habitat. The course includes definition of ecology, types of plant ecology, importance of plant ecology, types of ecological factors, abiotic and biotic factors, edaphic factors, topographic factors, plants adaption in different environments, hydrophytes, mesophytes, xerophytes, halophytes. Plant growth and development, population size and density, species distribution and population dynamics, interspecific and intraspecific relationship, types of pollination will highlight.

Angiosperms (flowering plants) are the most diverse and abundant group of plants on Earth, playing a crucial role in ecosystems and human life. The course provides an overview of angiosperm classification, evolution, morphology, diversity and molecular phylogenetic drawing on recent research and incorporating a multidisciplinary approach. The course emphasized the angiosperms and its taxonomic significances such as plant nomenclature and classification, principles of taxonomy, families from Basal angiosperms, Magnoliid, Monocot, Eudicot were described in details with their taxonomic description.

This module is composed of two parts: Floristics and Herbarium techniques. The first part, Floristics, is a study of the distribution, number, types and relationships of plant species in an area or areas. It is a sub-domain of Botany and Biogeography. It is the science of identifying the diversity of plants across a given geographic region. The second part, a herbarium, is a reference collection consisting of carefully selected and dried plants attached to paper sheets of standard size and filed in a systematic way. Herbaria are also the fundamental source of information for the identification and classification of plants and represents the backbone of taxonomic knowledge and thus of all disciplines in need of communicating about plants.

Cell biology is a branch of biology that studies the different structures and functions of the cell and focuses mainly on the idea of the cell as the basic unit of life. This module covers the structure, organization of the organelles they contain, their physiological properties, metabolic processes, signaling pathways, life cycle, and interactions with their environment. Knowing the components of cells and how cells work is fundamental to all biological sciences, it is also essential for research in bio-medical fields such as cancer, and other diseases. It is closely related to genetics, biochemistry, molecular biology, immunology, and developmental biology.

Plant anatomy is the study of the organization of tissues into the organs of the plant. It also included cytology and histology. The term cytology is the study of cells and histology is the study of tissues. Plant anatomy is now frequently investigated at the cellular level, and often involves the sectioning of tissues and microscopy. The course also provides the relationship between the structure and functions of plant cells, tissues and organs.

The purpose of this module is to provide the knowledge of genetics that is a study of genes, heredity and genetic variation in living organisms. Genes is the hereditary units which are transmitted from one generation to the next (inherited). The course provides the basic theoretical information about genetics and presents some of the experiments and reasoning through which this information had been achieved. These modules consist such topics of Mendelian Inheritance; Gene Interaction and Lethality; Allelism and Pleutropism; The Genetics of Sex; Polygenic or Multiple Inheritance Identification of Genetics Material; Chromosome and Chromosome Structure; Linkage and Crossing Over; Polyploidy; and Physical and Chemical bases of Gene Heredity. This module offers student enable to learn cytological bases of inheritance, chemical bases of heredity, protein synthesis, chromosomal aberrations, extranuclear inheritance and mutation. Cytogenetics is a branch of genetics that is concerned with the study of the structure and function of the cell, especially the chromosomes. Changes that affect the number and/or structure of the chromosomes can cause problems with growth, development, and how the body functions. Changes to chromosome structure can disrupt genes, causing the proteins made from disrupted genes to be missing or faulty. Depending on size, location, and timing, structural changes in chromosomes can lead to birth defects, syndromes or even cancer.

The purpose of module is to provide the sense of ecology which is a study of interactions among organisms and their environment. The effects of environmental factors depend on the abundance of plants and the interactions among and between plants and other organisms. Moreover, the pressure of the environment and of organisms upon each other is potent forces, which lead to new species and the continuing evolution of larger groups. The module covers the diversity, distribution, amount (biomass), and number (population) of particular organisms; as well as cooperation and competition between organisms, both within and among ecosystems.

Horticulture is the branch of agriculture that deals with the art, science, technology and business of vegetable garden plant growing. It includes the cultivation of medicinal plants, fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, herbs, sprouts, mushrooms, algae, flowers, seaweeds and non-food crops such as grass and ornamental trees. It also includes plant conservation, landscape restoration, landscape and garden design, construction and maintenance and arboriculture. The application of their knowledge, skills and technologies used to grow intensively produced plants for human food and non-food uses and for personal or social needs. The aims of plant propagation are improving plant growth, yields, quality, nutritional value and resistance to insects, diseases, and environmental stresses.

This module introduces students to evolution, a process of change in all forms of life over generations, and evolutionary biology that is a study of how evolution occurs. It is also the change in the heritable traits of biological populations over successive generations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organization, including the levels of species, individual organisms, and molecules. The forces of evolution are most evident when populations become isolated, either through geographic distance or by other mechanisms that prevent genetic exchange. Over time, isolated populations can branch off into new species. The course also provides origin and history of life, and followed by evolution and extinction.

These modules deal with plant pathology, i.e., a scientific study of diseases in plants caused by pathogens (infectious organisms) and environmental conditions (physiological factors). These modules offer students such knowledge as history of plant pathology, significance of plant diseases, control of plant diseases, diagnosis of plant diseases, identification of a previously unknown disease-Koch’s Rules, stages in the development of disease in plants, and the relationship between disease cycles and epidermis. Organisms that cause infectious disease include fungi, oomycetes, bacteria, viruses, viroids, virus-like organisms, phytoplasmas, protozoa, nematodes and parasitic plants. It also involves the study of pathogen identification, disease cycles, economic impact, plant disease epidermiology, plant disease resistance, how plant diseases affect humans and animals, and management of plant diseases.

The four kingdoms are introduced in this course. Kingdom – Monera ( prokaryotes) such as Cyanobacteria; Kingdom – Protista (the single-celled eukaryotes) such as Euglenophyta and (multicellular) such as Phaeophyta and Rhodophyta; Kingdom – Fingi include Masticomycota, Amastimycota, lichen; Kingdom – Plantae include algae, bryophytes and pteridophytes. Algae include Chlorophyta and Bryophytes include Bryophyta. Pteridophytes include Lycopodiophyta and Polypodiophyta and are also mentioned with their economic and medicinal importance.

Biochemistry is the study of the chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. It has to understand both the living world and the chemical world. Plants, animals, and single-celled organisms all use the same basic chemical compounds to live their lives.
This module deals with the structures, functions and interactions of biological macromolecules, such as proteins, nucleic acids, carbohydrates and lipids, which provide the structure of cells and perform many of the functions associated with life.

These modules concern with plant physiology that is a study of all the internal activities of plants—those chemical and physical processes associated with life as they occur in plants. Fundamental processes of plant physiology are photosynthesis, respiration, plant nutrition, plant hormone functions, tropisms, photoperiodism, photomorphogenesis, environmental stress physiology, seed germination and dormancy, stomata function and transpiration.
In the first part of these modules, students can learn on solutions and colloidal system; diffusion, osmosis and imbibitions; transpiration; water movement in plants; phloem translocation. In the later part, students enhance their knowledge on plant physiology by learning photosynthesis; respiration; growth and development; plant growth regulators; and mineral nutrition.

Microbiology is the study of microscopic organisms, those being unicellular (single cell), multicellular (cell colony), or acellular (lacking cells). It encompasses pure and applied microbiology. Pure microbiology includes virology, mycology, parasitology and bacteriology. As an application of microbiology, medical microbiology is often introduced with medical principles of immunology as microbiology and immunology. The course also provides the basic concepts of microbiology.

This module concerns with medicinal plants. Angiosperms are the original source of most plant medicines. The plants have the ability to synthesize a wide variety of chemical compounds which are used to perform important biological functions, and to defend against attack from predators such as insects, fungi and herbivorous mammals. Many of the herbs and spices used by humans to season food also yield useful medicinal compounds. The use of herbs and spices in cuisine developed in part as a response to the threat of food-borne pathogens. Further, the spices with the most potent antimicrobial activity tend to be selected. This module includes such topics as: Studies of Chemical Compounds of Plants which are of Value in Medicine; the Sources of Plant Drugs; and the Therapeutic Classes of Drugs.

Plant tissue culture is a collection of techniques used to maintain or grow plant cells, tissues or organs under sterile conditions on a nutrient culture medium of known composition. It is widely used to produce clones of a plant in a method known as micropropagation. It relies on the ability of plant cells to regenerate a whole plant (totipotency). Single cells, plant cells without cell walls (protoplasts), pieces of leaves, stems or roots can often be used to generate a new plant on culture media given the required nutrients and plant hormones. The module is composed with sub-titles such as Benefits of Plant Tissue Culture; Equipment for Plant Tissue culture; General Requirements for Growing Tissue in Culture; Types of Plant Tissue Culture; Cryopreservation and Germplasm Storage; Rapid Clonal Propagation; and Production of Secondary Metabolities by Cell Culture

This module deals with applied ecology, application of the science of ecology to real-world (usually management). It is an integrated treatment of the ecological, social, and biotechnological aspects of natural resource conservation and management. It is also called ecological or environmental technology. This module focuses on geomorphology, soils, and plant communities as the underpinnings for vegetation and wildlife management.

Plant Geography is that branch of science concerned with describing and interpreting the uneven distribution of the earth’s plant life. This module deals with the geography of the world, the divisions of the world into floristic regions, some general aspects of plant geography, the geological history and past distribution of the flowering plants, the factors of distribution, and the theory of tolerance.

This module concerns with the molecular basis of biological activity between the various systems of a cell, including the interactions between the different types of DNA, RNA and proteins and their biosynthesis, and studies how these interactions are regulated. Organelle biogenesis is the biogenesis, or creation, of cellular organelles in cells. It includes the process by which cellular organelles are split between daughter cells during mitosis; this process is called organelle inheritance.

Biodiversity is the variety of different types of life found on the Earth and the variations within species. Habitat destruction has played a key role in extinctions. Factors contributing to habitat loss are overconsumption, overpopulation, land use change, deforestation, pollution and global warning or climate change. Rapid environmental changes typically cause mass extinctions. Conservation biology is reforming around strategic plans to protect biodiversity. Preserving global biodiversity is a priority in strategic conservation plans that are designed to engage public policy and concerns affecting local, regional and global scales of communities, ecosystems and cultures. By studying this module, students will gain knowledge on drivers of biodiversity loss; values of biodiversity; wildlife, fisheries and endangered species; and conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.

This module concerns with medicinal plants. Angiosperms are the original source of most plant medicines. The plants have the ability to synthesize a wide variety of chemical compounds which are used to perform important biological functions, and to defend against attack from predators such as insects, fungi and herbivorous mammals. Many of the herbs and spices used by humans to season food also yield useful medicinal compounds. The use of herbs and spices in cuisine developed in part as a response to the threat of food-borne pathogens. Further, the spices with the most potent antimicrobial activity tend to be selected. This module includes such topics as: Studies of Chemical Compounds of Plants which are of Value in Medicine; the Sources of Plant Drugs; and the Therapeutic Classes of Drugs.

Research is a systematic inquiry to describe, explain, predict and control the observed phenomenon. Research methodology is a systematic use of methods to analyze or research subject. It includes observations and formation of the topic, hypothesis, conceptual definition, operational definition, gathering of data, analysis of data, data Interpretation, test, revising of hypothesis and conclusion.
After finishing this module, students will be able to know importance of research in science, how to formulate and handling problems in research, how to construct research tools and framework, how to survey literature, how to design research, how to analyze, interpret and present the data, how to write reports and research papers.

Biostatistics or biometry is the application of statistics to a wide range of topics in biological problems. Statistics is a group of methods used to collect, analyzes, present and interpret data and to make decisions. This module encompasses the design of biological experiments, especially in medicine, pharmacy, agriculture and fishery; the collection, summarization and analysis of data from those experiments; and the interpretation of and inference from, the results.

Plant Systematic is the biological classification of plants. It closely allied to plant taxonomy and it deals with the identification and ranking of all plants. It includes classification and nomenclature, and enables the botanist to comprehend the broad range of plant diversity and evolution. It involves relationships between plants and their evolution, especially at the higher levels. Later, classification and description was driven by natural history and natural theology. Until the advent of the theory of evolution, nearly all classification was based on the scale of nature. Relationships are visualized as evolutionary trees (cladograms, phylogenetic trees, phylogenies). Phylogenies have two components, branching order and branch length.

Plant biotechnology is a variety of techniques used to transfer beneficial traits from one plant to another. It can be defined as the introduction of desirable traits into plants through genetic modification. The course also provides technologies especially recombinant DNA, genetic engineering and biofuel. Genetic engineering is a modification of an organism’s genetic composition by artificial means, often involving the transfer of specific traits, or genes, from one organism into a plant of an entirely different species. A biofuel is a fuel that is produced through contemporary biological processes such as agriculture and anaerobic digestion. It can be derived directly from plants, or indirectly from agricultural, commercial, domestic, and/or industrial wastes.

This module is dealt with pharmacognosy, a study of drugs of natural origin. It is also de fined as “the study of the physical, chemical, biochemical and biological properties of drugs, drug substances or potential drugs or drug substances of natural origin as well as the search for new drugs from natural sources”. Pharmacology is the branch of medicine and biology and the study of the biological effects that the chemicals in medicinal plants have on cell cultures, animals and humans.
By studying this module, students familiarise with plant nomenclature and taxonomy; classification, identification and histological characters of plants (leaves, stem, root, bark, flower, fruit and seed); preliminary observation; organized (cellular) crude drugs; and unorganized (acellular) Crude Drugs.

This module covers the application of microorganisms. The course involved microbiology in the biological world, environmental microbiology, water and waste treatment, microbiology of food, beverage and medicine and bioleaching. As an application of microbiology, medical microbiology is often introduced with medical principles of immunology as microbiology and immunology. Bioleaching is the extraction of metals from their ores through the use of living organisms. It is one of several applications within biohydrometallurgy and several methods are used to recover copper, zinc, lead, arsenic, antimony, nickel, molybdenum, gold, silver, and cobalt.

Industrial microbiology is an area of applied microbiology which deals with screening, improvement, management and exploitation of microorganisms for the production of various useful end products on a large scale. The module covers the methods of measurement of microbial growth; microbial screening, selection and strain improvement; the fermentation industry; and biodeterioration

Plant physiology is the study of the dynamic physical, chemical and biological processes that allow plants to function, grow and interact with environment. In this course, environmental factors (abiotic and biotic factors), water stress, light stress and temperature stress on plants are emphasized.

This module deals with carbon fixation by crop canopies, biological nitrogen fixation, flowering and fruiting and root growth. In biological nitrogen fixation, leaf area, interception of solar radiation and crop growth, plant density and plant distribution are discussed. In biological nitrogen fixation, industrial production of ammonia, atmospheric N₂ fixation, biological N₂ fixation, rhizosphere fixation in grasses, genetically controlled factors and environmental factors are emphasized. Photoperiodism, thermoperiodism, root function, root initiation and growth, root systems, factors affecting root growth and distribution were also discussed in this module.

This module aims to disseminate information on the requirements and methodologies of quality control and assurance of herbal medicinal products by focusing on the importance of standardization to guarantee product uniformity, efficacy and safety. In addition, students will learn basic pharmacognosy, methods of plants analysis, plants metabolites and drugs production in this module.

Molecular Genetics is the field of biology and genetics that studies the structure and function of genes at a molecular level. It is also the study of flow and regulation of genetic information between DNA, RNA and protein molecules. This module focuses on concepts of genes, duplication, replication, transcription, translation and application of DNA.

This module deals with evolution that is the accumulation of genetic changes within populations over time. It does not refer to changes that occur in an individual within its lifetime. Instead, it refers to the changes in the characteristics of population over the course of generation.
The module covers the topics on evolution theory, natural selection and variation, speciation, genetic evolution, and population genetics.

Microbial Biotechnology is the manipulation of microorganisms at the genetic and molecular level to generate useful products. Microorganisms are beneficial for microbial bioremediation of domestic, agricultural and industrial wastes and subsurface pollution in soils, sediments and marine environments. The ability of each microorganism to degrade toxic waste depends on the natural of each contaminant. The module also provides students to understand the scope of microbiology and biotechnology, microbiological technique in biotechnology, biotechnology in health care, microbiology and manufacture industry, biotechnology in agriculture and future aspect of microbial biotechnology.

The purpose of this module is to enable students to be known more about the sources of industrial plants that include cyanobacteria, algae, fungi and angiosperm. In addition, fibers, dyes, latex, oils, and food and spices those could be obtained from plants also could be learned by this module.
Plants are essential to life on earth; they produce the oxygen we breathe through photosynthesis and provide much of the food we eat. Some species provide medicines and promote healing; others are used for insect control or to conserve water. Plants with dense root systems prevent soil erosion and those with brightly colored flowers attract pollinators. Plants have been used to control body functions and fertility, to poison, and to make clothing, paper and rubber. Therefore, the economic plants may be defined as being useful directly, as in food, or indirectly, as products we use or that enhance the environment.

This module deals with enzymology that is the study of enzymes, their kinetics, structure, and function, as well as their relation to each other. The module focuses on general characteristics and application of useful enzymes. It also reveals breadth and brief history of enzymology.

Biostatistics or biometry is the application of statistics to a wide range of topics in biological problems. Statistics is a group of methods used to collect, analyzes, present and interpret data and to make decisions. This module encompasses the design of biological experiments, especially in medicine, pharmacy, agriculture and fishery; the collection, summarization and analysis of data from those experiments; and the interpretation of and inference from, the results.

Environmental ethics is the philosophical discipline that considers the moral and ethical relationship of human beings to the environment. Learn how environmental ethics and human values affect our ability to understand and solve environmental problems. Human values are the things that are important to individuals that they then use to evaluate actions or events.
The module covers such topics on Environmental Education; Environmental Economic, Politics and World Views; Conservation Education and Environmental Ethics.

The course provides a comprehensive examination of plant evolution, tracing the major transitions in the plant kingdom from ancestral green algae to modern angiosperms. In this course, phylogenetic relationship of algae, prokaryotic algae, eukaryotic algae, evolution in green algae, characteristic feature of bryophytes, evolution among bryophyte, alternation of generation in bryophytes, ferns and other seedless vascular plants, classification of seedless vascular plants, importance of seedless vascular plants, heterospory, gymnosperm diversity were emphasized.

Embryology deals with the study of all the events starting from microsporogenesis, megasporogenesis, pollination and fertilization till the development of a mature embryo. Morphogenesis is the process that causes a cell, tissue or organism to develop its shape. It governs how organized structures and complex organs emerge from a single cell through tight interplay between genetics, chemical signals and physical forces.

Taxonomy in relation to plants is called plant taxonomy which gives emphasis on identification and naming of plants. The module is divided into five units, scope and application of plant taxonomy; principles of taxonomy and plant classification; taxonomic structure; botanical nomenclature and principle of draft barcode.

Pharmacognosy can be defined as a knowledge of drugs or nature derived pharmaceuticals obtained from plants, animals, microbes or minerals. In this module, historical development of pharmacognosy, botanical aspects of pharmacognosy, official drugs from different plant sources in Myanmar, phytochemical aspects of pharmacognosy and preparation of reagents for pharmacognosy were emphasized.

The microbiology has a major contribution to make with the implementation of research works in a variety of subjects. A large number of beneficial microorganisms have been screened and identified by researchers in the field of microbiology. They have tried to extract microorganisms-mediated products such as antibiotics, organic acid, enzymes, plant-growth promoting substances, food and feed. Bacteria and other microbes have been widely used as the subjects for the study not only of molecular and cellular biology, but also industrial and applied sciences. This module includes five parts; role of microorganisms in 21^st century, environmental microbiology, agricultural microbiology, bio-energy of microbes and biological control of crop plants.

The course emphasizes thinking critically about the environment, ecosystem and living organisms, ecosystem and physical environment, major ecosystems of the world, classification of natural resources, air pollution, global atmospheric changes, water and soil pollution, pesticide dilemma, solid and hazardous wastes, environmental laws, land-use planning, global security and environment.

The course includes two parts. Plant biochemistry emphasizes basic plant biochemistry, bioenergetics and metabolism and enzymes. Plant physiology emphasizes physiology of hormone action, photomorphogenesis, plant respiration, photosynthesis and stress physiology.

Biotechnology as the exploitation of microorganisms for industrial and other human purposes, the term usually refers particularly to the techniques involving genetic manipulation in microorganisms. In this module, introduction to plant tissue culture; plant protoplasts, methods of gene transfer, transgenic crops, protein purification, protein-protein interactions, biotechnology in biodiversity conservation were emphasized.