植物生理学(Plant physiology)是研究植物的各器官及整体的功能及其调控机理的科学。植物生理学既是一门基础理论学科，其研究成果不仅丰富和完善植物科学与生命科学的知识体系，同时，作为一门密切联系生产实践的应用科学，例如，“绿色革命”离不开对植物生理学在光合作用内的研究贡献。此外，植物生理学的研究还推动了作物栽培、作物育种、医药工业、食品加工等许多领域的发展。 自20世纪80年代，植物生理学通过与分子生物学、基因组学等新兴学科的交叉、融合，迎来了一个新的高速发展时期。借助新的研究技术和思路，植物生理学研究在细胞和分子水平上阐述植物重要生命过程的机理的同时，也借助功能基因组等研究，高通量、全面、整体地解密植物复杂的基因调控网络、信号转导途径、重要农艺性状(多为数量性状)等复杂生命过程。 本课程的教学将跟踪国际的趋势和前沿，重点介绍植物生理学在细胞和分子水平上的研究成果与进展。事实上当今的植物生理学研究主流是在分子层面上开展的，同时基因、酶、生物调节因子等又必须在植物体的整体水平上进行系统地研究，才能揭示其功能的全貌；此外，必须具有进化的思想才能将不同物种中观察到孤立现象联系起来。 二十一世纪，人类面临的三大主要问题是粮食、能源和环境。而植物科学的研究成果无疑将有助于这些问题的解决。

Plant physiology mainly focuses on the plant functions and their regulation process at organs and entire organism levels. Therefore, the research achievements in plant physiology field will contribute to plant science, life sciences and the developing of economic. For example, the "green revolution", which contributes greatly to human food production, is based on the research breakthrough in photosynthesis. As matter of fact, plant physiology researches play a leading role in crops breeding, cultivation, pharmacy, food processing and storage, etc. From 1980s, plant physiology has come into a new rapid developing era because the molecular biology and genomics moved into the plant science field. New technology and platforms are available to plant scientists to uncover both cellar, molecular mechanism and systematic of complex plant principle processes, i.e., gene regulation network, signal transduction and quantitative traits. The course focuses on recent advance in plant physiology by plant molecular biology approach. In the new century, three most serious problems mankind facing are food, energy and environment protection. The research in plant science field will definitely help to solve these problem, partly at least.