Fourth International Plant Tissue Culture Conference Inaugurated

Austin Nov-02-01: Dr.  Abdul Moyeen Khan, the Minister for information, former Physics Professor of Dhaka University inaugurated the Fourth International Plant Tissue Culture Conference on last Thursday, the first of November at the Department of Botany, Dhaka University. Also present as special guests in the inauguration ceremony were Mr. Lutfar Rahman Khan, State Minister for Science and Technology   and Mr. A N M Ehsanul Huq, State Minister for Education.

As against expected one hundred, only 29 foreign delegates  from 13 different countries: Australia, Bhutan, Germany, India, Iran, Japan, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka,  Syria, Trinidad and the USA turned up for the conference. The small number of attendees was largely attributed to the troubled situation in the  International arena. There was an adequate representation from the host country, Bangladesh, the number of delegates being 160.

The Minister urged the scientists with specialty in tissue culture and genetic engineering to evolve varieties of food crops with improved agronomic characters and high productivity. He said that it's high time that scientists give something substantial in return to the people whose tax money makes it possible for the research institutes and universities to carry out their research activity. He praised IRRI for the contribution it made in evolving rice varieties suitable for marginal land.

Besides the two state ministers, the meeting was addressed by the Association's President, Professor Syed Hadiuzzaman and  the Organizing Secretary, Dr.  M. Imdadul Hoque.

Professor Ahmad S. Islam, the former President of the Association, who now lives in the USA,  regretted his inability to attend the conference and sent his self-composed poem to mark this historic occasion. Please click here to access to the poem.

Two-week Workshop on "Molecular Markers"  immediately  to Follow the Conference

"The organization of the international workshop on 'Novel genetic markers for crop improvement' sponsored by ICGEB and the Ministry of Science & Technology is progressing smoothly. This is due to the joint efforts of the Molecular Biology and Plant Biotechnology Faculty & Research Associates of the Biochemistry Department and Plant Breeding & Genetics & Tissue Culture Faculty of the Botany Department. Foreign organizers from IRRI and MAS laboratory at Bangalore  have also put in their efforts for the planning of an effective workshop. participants from India, Iran, Pakistan, Syria, Sri Lanka and Trinidad have started arriving. Local participants include scientists from Bang. Agricultuaral Research Inst., Bangladesh Rice Research Inst, Bang. Jute Research Inst., Bangladesh Agricultue University, Khulna University, Bang. Atomic Energy Commission, Banga Bandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agriculture University and Bang. Rural Advancement committee (BRAC)."

Creditable Achievement by a former DU student
Regulation of Gene Function by Short Pulses of Light

Austin Sep-15-02. Dr. Enamul Huq is now a postdoctoral fellow at the department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of California at Berkeley. Earlier he did his M.Sc. in Biochemistry at Dhaka University, and Ph.D. at Purdue University under Professor Thomas K. Hodges. His Ph.D. work, comprising identification and sequencing ubiquitin gene in two IRRI varieties of rice, earned appreciation from rice geneticists. He has registered this gene. Please read his recent achievement which he accomplished together with his two other colleagues under the guidance of Professor Peter Quail. A Light-Switchable Gene Promoter System Developed "Phytochromes are plant photoreceptors that have two forms: Pr and Pfr. It is activated and deactivated by exposure to red- (660 nm) and far-red light (730nm) respectively. Earlier studies have shown that the photoreceptor binds to a basic helix-loop-helix protein called PIF3 (phytochrome interacting factor 3) on exposure just for a second to red light and dissociates from it, when exposed to far-red light for the same amount of time. Sae Shimizu-Sato, Enamul Huq, James M Tepperman and Peter H Quail at the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, UCB, embarked upon a project applying this principle to turn on and off a gene responsive to red and far-red light wavelength, respectively. In the September 3 issue of Nature Biotech., the above authors report that they have successfully developed a promoter system. The authors used yeast cells expressing two chimeric proteins. One is: a phytochrome-GBD (GAL4-DNA-binding domain) (GBD) fusion and the other, a PIF3-GAD (GAL4-activation-domain) fusion. They have shown that the target gene (LacZ/His) in yeast cells is activated within one second from the time cells are exposed to red light. In darkness the phy(Pr)GBD fusion protein is synthesized in the transformed yeast cells and the chromophore is attached to the phytochrome moiety to generate biologically inactive Pr form. In this configuration, Phy(Pr)-GBD remains attached to its DNA-binding site in the target promoter gene without being associated with the PIF3-GAD fusion protein. Following an exposure just for a second to red wave length, the phytochrome moiety is converted to the biologically active Pfr form that binds to PIF3-GAD. This leads to the formation of a 3 unit complex consisting of two fusion proteins and the DNA-binding site in the promoter region of the target gene, resulting in the transcriptional activation of the target gene (LacZ/His). When cells are exposed to far-red light, within a second, the two fusion proteins are dissociated converting the phytochrome molecule to its inactive form, Pr. The gene is turned off and there is no transcription. Depending upon the wavelength cells are exposed to, the gene of interest may be turned on and off. The authors believe that the technique to switch on/off a gene by means of short pulses of light will prove to be a powerful tool in regulating the gene function in many organisms, besides being non-toxic compared to the systems developed earlier in which recommended methods were chemicals and heat shocks.