Kerala - Kozhikode   

Research results vital, scientist community told

Kozhikode: Research should be more result oriented when it comes to producing improved varieties of seeds and saplings resistant to biotic and abiotic stress, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) Deputy Director-General (Horticulture) H.P Singh has said.

He was addressing a brainstorming session on Bioinformatics and Genomics in Horticulture at the Indian Institute of Spices Research (IISR) here in Kozhikode on Saturday.

Dr. Singh said breeders and biotechnologists should work together as a team to attain this goal.

“Attention should be given to conventional breeding using markers,” he said. [A genetic marker is usually a piece of genetic material, usually DNA, which can be used in the laboratory to tell apart cells, individuals, populations, or species].

“The whole genome sequencing is essential to annotate gene function and it is important to have strong biotechnology and bioinformatics at the gene annotation level,” Dr. Singh said.  

Voicing concern over the inadequate use of markers in breeding, he said, “although markers have been developed in many crops, they are not effectively used in breeding programmes.” He also recommended the use of genomics and bioinformatics in developing high-value horticultural crops.

Efforts lauded

Appreciating the efforts of horticulture institutes in the field of biotechnology, he advised scientists to utilise these techniques as a tool in crop-improvement programmes. 

There were brainstorming sessions on the genomics of banana, tropical tubers, spice crops, fungal genomics, and phytoplasmal genomics.

Biotechnology and Bio-informatics scientists from various ICAR institutes like the Indian Institute of Horticultural Research (IIHR) Bangalore; National Research Centre for Banana (NRCB), Tiruchirapalli; Central Plantation Crops Research Institute (CPCRI), Kasaragod; Central Tuber Crops Research Institute (CTCRI), Thiruvananthapuram; and IISR attended the meet. Papers on various aspects of bioinformatics and genomics were presented.

V.A. Parthasarathy, Director, IISR; S.K. Naskar, Director, CTCRI; and M. Anandaraj, Project Coordinator (Spices) also spoke. Dr. Singh also inaugurated a Centralized Laboratory for Advanced Research at IISR.

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