Events & Features

• 30 Nov -0001

Every two weeks, if not each week, we would like to present in our web site recent topics of interest to the community of tissue culture or tissue culture related science. The topics will vary from basic to applied tissue culture technology to those on plant transformation, molecular biology, genetically modified crops, important patents and events pertaining to our interest. This week we offer the following interesting article on a subject which has created a confused picture in our mind for the past several years. The bottom line of this topic is not to discourage proponents of GM food but gives a clear message to the concerned scientists and policy makers to be extremely careful in deciding whether to release a GM food crop without being absolutely sure that a transgenic food plant is harmless and do not pose a threat to the general pubic.

In the second  week we  posted a second article on "Evolution of Plant Resistance Genes" by Dr. Tony Prior and his associates at the CSIRO, Canberra, Australia.  The third article discusses about  salt tolerance particularly its molecular aspects. This article will be of particular interest to Bangladesh where salt levels in soil  in some areas are have become our major concern. 

The third week's article is about the use of virus as a vector to ferry the alien gene(s) across the host plant and the molecular basis as to how the  virus gene, when incorporated into the host's genome, acts as a deterrent to  further attack by the same virus.

This fourth week's feature article  would  sound like a scientific fiction story, namely, planting of the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana on Mars soil by a robot to be carried there by spaceship. The mission has been scheduled for 2007. The specific Arabidopsis plants  contain  genes from jellyfish that will glow under stress conditions and will send signals to Earth. Non transmission of light will indicate that arabidopsis plants have adjusted themselves to Martian  climate and are doing okay.

The fifth week has two  "Review of the week" summaries.   One deals with use of biotechnology in production of parthnocarpic fruits (seedless) in non-parthenocarpic species. As many as six genes have been identified and cloned which hold a great promise for inducing seedless fruit without fertilization and  contribute to full development of fruits in varieties where seedless fruits are misshapen. The second article is about embryo development without fertilization. This remarkable  study has been carried out under the guidance of Dr. Abid Chaudhury, Principal Investigator, CSIRO, Canberra, Australia. The results reported in this article will go a long way to breed high quality fruit varieties such as mango with fidelity. 

This week, an exciting article on, "Medical Molecular Farming" is being published. In this review article, Professor Henry Daniell (originally an Indian from Madras) of Central Florida University and his associates have discussed how in the foreseeable future, it may be possible to target genes of interest (conferring immunity to a number of diseases through their protein products) to chloroplast  genome thereby ensuring its maximum expression without any position effect. There are over 10,000 chloroplasts in an individual cell; so the gene of interest will produce 10,000 fold more proteins in the form of a specific vaccine. 

If you have any specific questions about any of the EIGHT articles, please go to the Web site at www.esb.utexas.edu/islam and enter your query/queries on the top left hand column. Hopefully you will get your answers at your email address.

• Transgenic Crops -Should We Create These Indiscriminately?

• Evolution of Plant Resistance Gene

• Plant Salt Tolerance

• Virus Mediated Gene Expression in Plants

• JellyPlants on Mars Planet in 2007

• Production of Seedless Fruits through biotech

• Seed Development without Fertilization

• Medical Molecular Farming
  
  Do you want to learn ABCD of Molecular Biology?. Some of our viewers may be interested to know what plant tissue  culture and genetic engineering  are all about and do not know where to start. For such enthusiasts and undergraduate students, the titles of a few articles in this field are given below. They were published in the Daily Star within the last three years. Just click the article of your choice and enjoy it. The readers of these articles are welcome to direct their questions to BAPTC office: mailto: baptcb@bd.drik.net 

• Exciting Future of Biotechnology in Bangladesh by Prof. Zeba Seraj (January 30, 2001)

• We should not blindly follow the developed countries; we must have our own program in biotechnology

• Promotion of activities and research in biotechnology including production of vaccines for economic development of Bangladesh

• Biotechnology for Bangladesh in the millennium

• Research in the model plant Arabidopsis is a must to keep abreast with the rest of the world in Molecular Biology research

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