Teaching of Nematology and Plant Pathology

Profs. Ricardo offers two graduate courses on Nematology: Nematology and Special Topics in Nematology. These courses cover the following topics:

History of Nematology; importance of nematodes to ecosystems, agriculture, public health and biomedical sciences; morphology, classification and phylogenetics of nematodes; introduction  to physiology of nematodes; ecology of nematodes (types of life cycles, survival, dispersion, influence of  environmental and adaphic factors; interaction of nematodes with other soil organisms and phytopathogens); nematode-plant interactions and physiology of plant-parasitism; main genera and species of phytonematodes and the diseases they cause; nematode epidemiology; control of phytonematodes through cultural, biological, chemical and genetic approaches; virus-vector nematodes; introduction to entomopathogenic nematodes (morphology, classification, types of life cycle, techniques and protocols; their use to control agricultural pests); recent techniques employed to work with nematodes; and introduction to free-living, fresh water and marine nematodes (main taxonomic groups and ecology).

The students are encouraged to go through our extensive Nematology library: about 200 books, reprints of some 4,900 articles and all issues of Journal of Nematology and Nematologia Brasileira. The two University libraries dedicated to Biology and Agriculture subscribe many national and international journals and have access to databases such as Periódicos, Web of Science, Scopus, CAB and Agricola.

Our research group is part of the Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology. Its seven professors offer several courses in Entomology and Plant Pathology. In the later, we emphasize the undergrad courses Phytopathology I and II, and Plant Pest and Disease Clinics; and the graduate courses Mycology, Epidemiology of Plant Diseases, Integrated Control of Plant Diseases, and Chemical Control of Plant Diseases. For details, visit the Department website.