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National Bioresource Development Board
| Lac Biotechnology: |
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The Board has recently initiated programmes on Lac Biotechnology entitled ¡®Biological, Chemical and Molecular Characterization of Lac Insect Host Plant Relationship¡¯; ¡®Evaluation of bio-control agents and bio-rational approaches for management of lac insect predators¡¯; ¡®Application of Molecular Fingerprinting for Genetic Characterization of Races and Species of Lac Insects and ¡®Schleichera oleosa (Lour.) Oken, a Lac host: In vitro propagation¡¯. |
| Sugarcane Biotechnology: |
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A project entitled ¡®Development of ESTs, gene identification and transformation in sugarcane¡¯ was recently to sanctioned to Indian Institute of Sugarcane Research, Lucknow and Department of Plant Molecular Biology, Delhi University, South Campus. The objectives of the project are Construction of general and subtracted cDNA libraries in sugarcane for ESTs specific to red-rot resistance, ESTs specific to excess-water stress (water-logging), ESTs specific to deficit-water stress (drought); sequencing and database search to assign the gene function; establishment of sugarcane cDNA bank; full-length sequencing and expression profiling of selected genes and transforming sugarcane with identification genes of economic importance. |
| Gums and Resins: |
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The Board has recently sanctioned a project entitled ¡®Novel Chemo-Enzymatic Technology for the Food Fibre from Guar/Cassia tora Gums¡¯ to Centre of Advanced Studies in Chemistry, Forest Research Institute, Dehra Dun. The objective of the project is to prepare low viscosity dietary fibre from Guar and Cassia tora seed gums. More projects on Biotechnology related to gums and resins have been invited. |
| Butterfly park: |
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A unique project entitled ¡°Butterfly Park - A Center for Research, Education and Rural Livelihood using Butterfly Resources¡± has been launched by NBDB during the year. The project would give a tremendous boost to ecotourism as well.
Three components are butterfly park per se; a research component; and a training and education component. The butterfly park will be located in the Bannerghatta National Park Complex, Bangalore on a plot of eight acres. The centerpiece will be a display area of 1400m2 with a spectacular polycarbonate dome ¨C complete with host plants, artificial feed and flowing water. Live butterflies would be bred as per seasonal availability, and displayed here in large numbers for viewing by people. The type of butterflies released would be based on a ¡®butterfly calendar¡¯ round the year. In order to facilitate the breeding, there will be butterfly rearing as well as plant-rearing houses. A museum containing working models, pictures and other information relating to butterflies and related insects is also planned along with the live display. The park would be maintained by the Zoo Authority of Karnataka, which will also be responsible for overall coordination of the project.
The major objectives of the research component will be ¨C (i) development of a digitized database and distribution maps of butterflies and their host plants of Peninsular India; (ii) study of the community ecology of butterflies; and (iii) DNA fingerprinting and molecular phylogeny of butterflies. This component would be spearheaded by the University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore. The third component is training and education. This component will be dealt with by Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and Environment, an NGO based in Bangalore. |
| Marine and coastal bioresources |
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In the integrated programme on conservation, inventorization and enhancement of coastal bioresources, status report of all the sites has been compiled and will be published soon. Based on the status report, two or three villages from each site have been selected for developing strategies for judicious utilization of locally available bioresources for livelihood options. Several interactive meetings have been carried out with different stakeholders and involving several government departments as well as NGOs to develop an action plan for bioresource-based sustainable enhancement and livelihood generation for dependent communities.
Characterization of mangrove bioresources in selected locations is being undertaken using molecular marker systems to assess the nature and extent of genetic diversity in them. Initially the dominant mangrove species of the regions were selected for the studies. Molecular marker-based genetic characterization of 28 mangrove species in Bhitarakanika mangrove forests were undertaken during the period. Species-specific genetic fingerprinting patterns have been observed. Based on the distribution and zonation patterns, dominant species such as Avicennia marina, Rhizophora mucronata and Xylocarpus granatum from different populations were selected for studying intraspecific genetic diversity. These studies will help in the consolidation of elite genotypes which could be useful in developing restoration strategy for the degraded mangrove locations. Enriched DNA libraries have been constructed in the mangrove associate species Porteresia coarctata with the aim of isolation of novel genetic material for resistance to abiotic stress factors. Using random sequencing approach, about 80 ESTs from the cDNA library have been sequenced from the 5¡ä end. Sequence homology analysis has been carried out with the available gene sequences in the worldwide databases. Some of these clones do show similarity with other stress-related genes. Five clones with initiation codon have been selected for further studies in relation to their expression level as well as complete sequencing for obtaining full-length genes. |
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