CenBios |
|
CenBios is our agricultural biotechnology subsidiary. It was established to exploit the potential of agro-biotechnology to address India-specific opportunities. After witnessing the tremendous contribution of GM cotton to Indian agriculture, the demand for such technology is bound to increase. |
|
|
|
CenBios has established relationships with reputed national and international research organizations to conduct collaborative research in the areas of transgenics and functional plant genomics. The R&D functions at CenBios are currently structured to undertake two key programmes: transgenic and diagnostic. |
|
TRANSGENIC DIVISION |
Focus Areas: |
• |
Development of biotic and abiotic stress-tolerant crop varieties. |
• |
Improvement of quality for commercial viability. |
• |
Longer shelf life. |
|
|
Activities: |
• |
Identification of new genes for new traits from in-house projects and collaborative partnerships. |
• |
Development of transformation and regeneration protocols. |
• |
Studies on transgene expression. |
|
|
DIAGNOSTIC DIVISION |
CENBIOS is currently developing marker-assisted selection (MAS) protocols to effectively search and locate new traits for crop improvement. MAS is especially useful for certain crop traits that are difficult or impossible to identify conventionally. |
|
Focus Areas: |
• |
Marker assisted breeding for complex traits especially when the genotype-environment interaction (GxE) is high, and gene pyramiding. |
• |
DNA finger printing of parents and hybrids for plant varietal protection. (We have so far successfully developed DNA fingerprinting patterns for several cotton and rice hybrids.) |
• |
Use of MAS to develop GOT protocols for crops such as cotton, rice, sunflower and okra. |
|