Genetics & Molecular Biology

The magnificent plant of Euphorbia Tirucalli, most commonly known as the pencil plant, has a great potential. It naturally produces a poisonous latex...COOL right? Well that isn't the interesting part yet. This latex can be genetically engineered into none other than the very petrolium that the world is so dependent on. This is an amazing discovery right?? Well unfortunately it is little research being done on the topic. The great Melvin Calvin (may he RIP) was researching this topic and predicted that this plant is capable of 10-50 barrels of petrolium per acre.

Plant genetic transformation and molecular markers

By Ashwani Kumar
Pointer Publishers Jaipur India pp 288
ISBN 978-81-7132-613-6

The last three decades have seen momentous developments in plant transformation technologies; such that a large number of transgenic crop plants have now been released for commercial production. Advances in the technology have been due to

Biotechnology for food, health and environment

Ashwini Kumar
Department of Botany
University of Rajasthan
Jaipur 302004.

biotechnology has been increasingly applied to crop agriculture. The manipulation of whole organisms, populations of organisms and nucleic components holds much promise for improving crop productivity
designing crops for specific environments

Monsanto (St Louis, MO, USA), Novartis (Basel, Germany) and Archer, Daniel, Midlands (ADM) (Decatur, IL, USA) believe so

Genetic engineering is applied for crop
improvement.

Designing crops for specific environments.
The enhancement of nutrient availability,
Pest and disease control,
The production of herbicide resistance in crop plants and
Tolerance to a variety of environmental stresses.

"What should be the role and focus of biotechnology in the agricultural research agendas of developing countries?" <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

1. Introduction

Recent advances in plant biotechnology: Applications in Agriculture.
Ashwani Kumar
Professor of Botany,
Department of Botany and P G School of Biotechnology
University of Rajasthan
Jaipur 302004.
msku4@hotmail.com Tel 0141 2711654 ( Off) 0141 2654100 ( Res) Mob (0) 9414057484
Abstract:

Conventional types of genetic analysis may not be as accurate as believed, according to researchers writing in Trends in Genetics.

Their analysis of penguins that died 44,000 years ago in Antarctica have provided extraordinary frozen DNA samples that they say challenges the accuracy of traditional genetic aging measurements, and suggest those approaches have been routinely underestimating the age of many specimens by 200 to 600 percent.  So a biological specimen determined by traditional DNA testing to be 100,000 years old may actually be 200,000 to 600,000 years old.

They say their findings raise doubts about the accuracy of many evolutionary rates based on conventional types of genetic analysis.

How should we talk about biological networks or systems? Roger Brent and Jehoshua Bruck stated the problem like this:

PEPcase determinations

As a key enzyme in C4-photosynthesis and Crassulacean Acid Metabolism
(Kluge, 1983), phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (EC 4.1.1.31) has been
studied intensively in several laboratories, particularly in the last decade. In
most studies, the reaction catalyzed by PEPCase (PEP + HCO~- Mg2+,
oxaloacetate + Pi) is coupled with malate dehydrogenase (EC 1.1.1.37) to
the oxidation of NADH (oxaloacetate + NADH ~ malate + NAD + )
and the enzymic activity is measured by the rate of decrease in absorbance
at 340 nm (Lane et al. 1969). Direct measurements of oxaloacetate, either by
spectroscopy at 280 nm (Jones et al. 1978) or by 14CO2 incorporation (Goatly
and Smith, 1974) are also used, though less frequently.

Instead of using someone else's urine in random drug testing, perhaps criminals can step it up a notch on the scientific ladder and use someone else's genome.

Can your genes ever absolve you of responsibility for a particular act?

New Scientist features a story that asks that very question, regarding the case of a man whose sentence was reduced because he had "gene variants linked to aggression."

Scientists have successfully differentiated human embryonic stem cells (hESC) into major cell types of lung epithelial tissue, a technique which could provide an alternative to lung transplants for patients with lung injury due to chronic pulmonary disease and inherited genetic diseases such as cystic fibrosis.