Molecular Biology pertains to the study of living systems at the molecular level, especially DNA and RNA, and provides a background appropriate for further work in the rapidly expanding areas of genomics, cell biology, biotechnology, microbiology, diagnostics, and therapeutics. In recent years, different marker systems such as Restriction Fragment Length Polymorhisms (RFLPs), Rapid Amplified Polymorphic DNAs (RAPD), Amplified Fragment Length polymorphism (AFLPs), Simple Sequence Length Polymorphisms (SSLPs or SSRs) and Sequence Tagged Microsatellite Markers (STMS) have been developed, which are capable of differentiating varieties and genotypes. The principles for understanding the structure and functional relationships of molecular biology techniques includes DNA manipulation, sequencing, cloning, sub cloning, library construction and screening, RNA isolation and characterization, analysis of expression by cDNA synthesis (RT-PCR), micro-arrays, gene chips and Real-Time-PCR. CPB plans to be a regional leader in these areas of biotechnology.
(b) Plant Tissue Culture
Plant tissue culture is a novel and innovative technique to grow high quality, disease free plants quickly and in a large quantity by culturing and maintaining plant cells or organs like leaves, stem, root, branch shoot tip, petals, anther and pollen in sterile, nutritionally and environmentally supportive conditions in vitro. This technique is especially useful when the planting material is scarce or on the edge of extinction as thousands of plants can be produced from a single selected plant. Plants prepared using tissue culture technique are true to type resembling the mother plant in all traits, disease free, contains uniform growth and can be obtained throughout the year. Moreover, harvesting period for crops prepared with tissue culture plantations is 25 per cent less than normal. So, cultivation based on tissue culture can prove to be commercially more profitable, which could make our farmers and economy stronger. The crop growth is also uniform with almost zero crop loss due to the diseases, which consequently leads to more yield, and thereby more profit. The technology has enormous potential for meeting the demands of both domestic and export market in terms of high quality planting materials. Since the cost of production in India is comparatively low, the growers in Europe and USA are always interested to tie-up with Indian counterparts for production of tissue culture raised plants on a commercial basis.
(c) DNA testing
DNA testing and diagnostic facility is a unique service based on modern-biotechnology procedures for testing of transgene character, plant variety verification, testing for hybrid seeds, detection of GMOs in conventional seed lots and quality assurance of tissue culture raised seedlings. The DNA fingerprinting technique is used for identification of desired quality traits of a particular genotype/species and for research as well as commercial application and also plays important role in respect of IPR and Plant Breeder’s Rights. Testing facilities for the quality of hybrids and transgenic plants is beneficial for the farmers, user departments and other corporations for ascertaining the quality of the planting material. Diagnostic services for identification of pathogens in tissue culture raised plants at various levels of micropropagation including virus indexing are being developed at CPB to select virus free planting material using serological and PCR based detection methods for selected crops.
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