Genetics & Molecular Biology

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: Biotechnology is an area of production and research in which biological systems and biological principles are employed to solve technological problems. In this sense it becomes all inclusive. And during the last decade the advancements in biology have led to the development newer areas like , cellular…

Researchers at the University of Iowa and Kansas State University say a deafness-causing gene defect in mice helped identify a new protein that protects sensory cells in the ear, according to findings in PLoS Genetics.  In humans, hereditary deafness is one of the most common birth defects, yet most genes involved in hearing are unidentified. Mice are used as research models because mouse and human auditory genetics are very similar.  Using a deaf mouse model generated at The Jackson Laboratory, the team identified the deafness-causing defect in the claudin-9 gene. The mutated gene…

I'm not sure what Freeman Dyson has been smoking when he argues that cutting-edge genome science is ripe for hobbyists: The language of the genome is still an undeciphered script, like the Linear B script after it was discovered on ancient clay tablets in Crete. Professional archaeologists and linguists failed for fifty years to decipher Linear B. The amateur Michael Ventris succeeded where the experts had failed, and proved that Linear B was a pre-Homeric form of Greek. I am certainly no Ventris. I cannot decipher my own genome, or extract from it any useful information about my anatomy and…

Today, I was met by a science-debunker (laugh a little, you know you want to.) He didn't know that I work in the field of biotechnology, or that I am a scientist. I am often met with the, "you're too pretty to have a high IQ," mentality, so I tend to take the route of listening to the blather before I correct them. It makes their judgment of my level of intelligence seem so much more embarrassing. Cruel? Perhaps a little. He had heard through friends that I am an atheist (according to him, this is synonymous with devil worship, and he wished only to save me from an eternity in hell.) We…

BIODIVERSITY OF INDIAN DESERT AND IT'S VALUE.   Amit Kotia and Ashwani Kumar Biotechnology Lab, Department of Botany University of Rajasthan, Jaipur – 302004 INDIA   ABSTRACT       The state of Rajasthan is situated between 23º3’ and 30º12’ N latitude and 69º30’ and 78º17’ E longitude . The total land area of the state is about 3,24,239 km² , out of which about 1,98,100 km² is arid and rest is semi arid. The physical features are characterized mainly by the Aravallis and to the some extent by the vindhyan formation, and the Deccan trap. A major portion…

Plant tissue culture and biotechnology are tools available for human growth and development and have an option for being boon or bane. Our books analyse them all in different aspects and I would like to introduce our publications for your BOOKS WRITTEN/ EDITED BY ASHWANI KUMAR ET AL(2006-2009) 1. Plant Cell and Tissue Culture - A Tool in Biotechnology Basics and ApplicationSeries: Principles and Practice Neumann, Karl-Hermann, Kumar, Ashwani, Imani, Jafargholi 2009, IX, 333 p. 153 illus., Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-540-93882-8   This book provides a general introduction as well as a…

It is a start. The first version of the Systems Biology Graphical Notation (SBGN) was published for the process diagram, the entity relationship diagram, and the activity flow diagram. The figure caption below is copied from the August 8 issue of the journal Nature Biotechnology, unfortunately, without its figure. The semantics of an SBGN diagram does not depend on the relative position of the symbols, or on colors, patterns, shades, shapes and thickness of edges. Therefore, the upper and lower diagrams are identical as far as SBGN is concerned, and have to be interpreted exactly…

Biology has just gotten a new set of standards for graphically representing biological information, biology's equivalent of the circuit diagram in electronics. Researchers at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory's European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) and their colleagues say this visual language should make it easier to exchange complex information, so that models are accurate, efficient and readily understandable. The new standard, called the Systems Biology Graphical Notation (SBGN), is published today in Nature Biotechnology. Researchers use standardized visual languages…

A group of University of Utah scientists say they developed a "molecular condom" that could help protect women against AIDS in Africa and other impoverished areas. It's a vaginal gel that turns semisolid in the presence of semen, trapping AIDS virus particles in a microscopic mesh so they can't infect vaginal cells. A study testing the behavior of the new gel and showing how it traps AIDS-causing HIV particles will be published online later this week in the journal Advanced Functional Materials. "The first step in the complicated process of HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) infection in a…

The sex hormone estrogen tempers the killing activity of immune cells called cytotoxic T cells (CTLs), which are known to attack tumor cells and cells infected by viruses. Estrogen plays a critical role in the regulation of growth and the development of cells and is also crucial for cell-type-specific gene expression in various tissues. Deregulation of this system results in breast and ovarian cancer.  The key player in this process is a cytotoxic T cell molecule known as EBAG9. Breast and ovarian tumors are treated with drugs such as tamoxifen. Researchers suggest that this drug…