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Some
More Information about Various Sessions in the Fourth International
Plant Tissue Culture Conference
This
news is specially meant for those who could not attend the conference
in spite of their keen desire to do so. All the sessions as announced
in the final circular were held. The topic of each session, the
name of the chairman, cochairman and the keynote speaker are stated
below:
Session
I. Production of horticultural, ornamental,
timber and other cash crops through in vitro techniques.
The plenary lecture by Dr. T. Adachi was followed by session 1.
Professor S. N. Raina, Department of Botany, University of Delhi,
India, chaired both sections of session I assisted by two cochairmen;
Professor M. M. Haque (Dhaka University) in section IA and Professor
S. K. Bhadra (Chittagong University) in section IB. A total of thirteen
papers were presented in this session.
Session
II. Application of in vitro culture and
other breeding techniques for crop improvement. Section
II was chaired by Dr. A. K. Sharma at National Botanical Research
Institute, Lucknow, India. He was assisted by cochairman Professor
Mohammad Nurul Amin (Rajshahi University). Five papers were presented
in this session.
Session
III. Conservation of biodiversity through
in vitro techniques. The chairman of this session
was Professor Syed Hadiuzzaman, President BAPTC. The session was
co-chaired by Professor B. N. Prasad, Tribhuvan University, Nepal.
The main attraction of this session was the keynote speech by Dr.
E. R. J. Keller.*
Session
IV. Transgenic plants for sustainable crop
production. Assisted by Dr. Heiko Kiesecker, Department
of Genetics, University of Hannover, Germany, Dr. Swapan K. Datta
chaired the session. The
keynote speech delivered by Dr. Heiko Kiesecker was the main attraction
of this session*.
Session
V. Use of molecular markers for crop improvement.
The session was presided by Dr. Mohsin U. Patwary, Department
of Biology, Medgar College of the City University of New York, Brooklyn,
New York. The cochairman of the session was Professor Haseena Khan,
Departent of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, DU. The session
was highlighted by Professor Raina's keynote speech.*
Session
VI. Biosafety and IPR Management issues
in developing countries. The session was chaired by Dr.
M. Serajul Islam, Formerly member of Bioscience, Atomic Energy Commission,
Dhaka, with Professor Zeba I. Seraj, Department of Biochemistry
and Molecular Biology, DU, as cochairman. The keynote speaker in
the session was Dr. Naiyyum Chowdhury.*
Session
VII. Display of posters. All the posters on display were very well
presented and drew a large number of viewers both among participants
and local students. Posters on molecular markers to screen multiple-gene-controlled
(QTL) traits such as salinity in rice stole the show.
(*see
below for affiliation of the speaker and the title of each keynote
speech.)
Information about the Plenary and Keynote speeches at the Fourth
International Plant Tissue Culture Conference
Austin
Nov-30-01: There
were a few excellent presentations. Participants were spell bound
when Dr. Swapan Datta (see the picture below), the Chief Biotechnologist
of IRRI spoke on IRRI's outstanding achievements in the plenary
lecture on, "Potential benefit of bioengineered rice for developing
countries". He dwelt on their recently launched project on
developing new varieties of indica rice incorporating in it B carotene
and Fe genes from "the japonica Golden Rice".
Dr.
Datta said that it would take them five years following the initiation
of crosses between the japonica golden rice and the standard indica
rice varieties; three years of work before they are tested in the
field and
two years
for seed multiplication. He is also planning to step up the vitamin
A content in the proposed indica version of "the Golden Rice" by
a factor of 2 because the level in the japonica variety is not sufficient
to meet the daily requirements of undernourished people who have
no means to eat dairy products.
The
title of the second plenary lecture was, " How to keep Biodiversity
by means of plant biotechnology? Some approaches in overcoming breeding
behaviour. " Professor Taiji Adachi, School of Agriculture
and Biological Sciences, Osaka Prefacture University, Japan, was
the invited speaker. His presentation made a deep impression on
the audience. Equally impressive were the two keynote addresses
presented by two German professors, Dr. Heiko Kiesecker, Department
of Genetics, University of Hannover and Dr. E. R. J. Keller of the
Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research, Gaterslaben.
They spoke on, "Agrobacterium tumefaciens- mediated
transfer in large seed grain legumes - Pisum sativum L. and
Cicer arietinum L.." and "In vitro techniques
to improve the germplasm preservation - case studies for some temperate
corps and general features", respectively. The keynote speech
delivered by Professor S. N. Raina, University of Delhi, "Molecular
DNA markers as an aid to evaluate genetic integrity of micropropagated
plants" drew spontaneous applause from the delegates. The last
keynote address on "Intellectual Property Rights and Biotechnology"
was delivered by Dr. Naiyyum Chowdhury, Project Director of the
National Institute of Biotechnology and Member Bioscience, Bangladesh
Atomic Energy Commission.
Speakers
from Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka spoke mainly on micropropagation.
There were oral presentations and posters on marker-aided selection
by participants from India and those from the Molecular
Biology & Plant Biotechnology Faculty & Research Associates
of the Biochemistry Department,
Dhaka University.
Bangladesh
TV gave prominent coverage to the inaugural ceremony. The BTV-interview
of Professor Syed Hadiuzzaman, the President of BAPTC on the prospects
of tissue culture in Bangladesh featured prominently in the TV programme.
The Hamdard stall, one of many on display in the conference venue,
was also given coverage by BTV. On the 2nd (Friday) afternoon, conference
participants were taken on a tour to Savar.
Fourth
International Plant Tissue Culture Conference Concludes
Austin Nov-03-01: The Fourth International Conference ended after
three days of deliberations on a happy note.
Papers presented included those on micropropagation of diverse crops,
transformation, DNA fingerprinting, use of DNA markers to check
DNA variation in micropropagated material, preservation of Biodiversity
and IPR issues. The concluding session continued until 9 in the
night.
In the near future there will be more detailed reporting on the
conference's different sessions and highlights of important papers
presented by different speakers including the resolutions adopted
at the end of the conference.
The 'souvenir' published on the past three conferences
were attractive and won the hearts of the participants. The
present 'souvenir' to mark
the occasion has surpassed the previous three in its design, thanks
to the ingenuity of Professor Rakha Hari Sarker.
The organizers deserve admiration for their decision to bring out
the December issue of "Plant
Tissue Culture" journal
two months ahead of time. This was done with two objectives in mind:
1) to publicize the journal to participants to the conference and
2) to bring home to them that they could count on this 11-year old
journal to focus their research results to the world community.
Apart from peer review of every submitted paper, this has been made
possible through the online availability of summaries of the published
articles on the Association's Web page: www.baptc.org.
The current issue of the journal has one more added
feature "News and Views" as a part of the process
to broaden the journal's scope. The title of the article in this
new section is: "Internet Resources for Molecular Biology:
a Primer for Scientists from Least Developed Countries." The article will be welcome particularly to those desirous of embarking
on a molecular biology career. Expansion of the scope of the journal began in June 2000 (vol. 10) with the publication
of a "Review" article
on "Occurrence of Albino Plants in Anther and Pollen
Cultures : A problem Limiting the Application of In vitro Androgenesis
in Crop Improvement" by Professor S. S. Bhojwani and his associates.
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