to enable students to-
Aseptic technique, Safety, Preparation and sterilization of apparatus & reagents, synthetic media, culture vessels used. Plant tissue culture: Concept of totipotency, dedifferentiation and redifferentiation. Callus growth patterns/characteristics, organogenesis, hairy root culture. Somaclonal variations, somatic embryogenesis, synthetic seeds, anther and pollen culture, embryo culture and significance of haploid plants.
Isolation & fusion, somatic hybridization and cybrids. Production of virus free plants, Production of secondary metabolites, indexing for plant pathogens, Plant tissues culture and germplasm conservation. Material for Micropropagation, Advantages of Micropropagation, Types and Methods of Micropropagation and Applications of Micropropagation, Plant tissue culture techniques for crop improvement.
Agrobacterium mediated transformation, Ti and Ri Plasmid, Co-integration and Binary vectors, Direct DNA Uptake, Microinjection Delivery, use of 35S and other promoters, use of reporter genes. Techniques for production of transgenic plants resistant to herbicides, pathogens, pests and abiotic stresses (drought, salt & frost). PR Proteins, Nematode resistance, antifungal proteins, thionins, long shelf life of fruits & flowers, use of ACC synthase, polygalacturanase, ACC Oxidase, male sterility lines, bar & barnase system, carbohydrate composition & storage, ADP glucose, pyrophosphatase.
Advantages, vectors, success with tobacco and potato.Metabolic engineering & industrial products. Plant secondary metabolites, control mechanisms & manipulation of phenylpropanoid pathway, alkaloids, industrial enzymes, biodegradable plastics, polyhydroxybutyrate, therapeutic proteins, lysosomal enzymes, antibodies, edible vaccines. Purification strategies, Oleosin partitioning technology
Seed biology, technology &role in agriculture, seed certification, seed banks, terminator gene technology & implications, plant as chemical & pharmaceutical factories, biosafety & GM food crops