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was also addressed. The conference was man resource with training in both gene- tion from around the world are regularly
largely dominated by statistical genetics tics and statistics to address the complex organized to help Chinese scientists in-
and examples of quantitative traits in ani- problems of genetic dissection of com- teract and collaborate with those from
mals (including humans), although some plex QTs. other parts of the world. A major effort
excellent presentations on plant systems There appears to be a lack of activity in in India is needed to develop centres of
were also made by Qifa Zhang (on het- this area of research in India, where we statistical genetics with emphasis on QG,
erosis), Ed Buckler (on association map- have not been able to keep pace with the both in animal and plant systems.
ping) and Fred Hospital (on marker- recent developments in the field of QG.
assisted selection). It was also interesting There is hardly any school of statistical
to learn that methods of QG (including genetics with workstations having power- 1. Pollak, E., Kempthorne, O., Bailey Jr,
T. B. (eds), Proceedings of the International
QTL analysis and association mapping) ful supercomputers for QG research. The
Conference on Quantitative Genetics, Iowa
can be applied to the study of behav- centres of bioinformatics established so
State University Press, Ames, Iowa, 1977.
ioural traits, genome imprinting (epige- far are more oriented towards genomics 2. Weir, B., Genetics, 1987, 117, 601–602.
netics), copy number variants (CNVs) research rather than QG. Consequently, no 3. Weir, B. S., Eisen, E. J., Goodman, M. M.
and cis-SNPs and heterosis–environment statistical tools for research in the area of and Namkoong, G. (eds), Proceedings of
interactions. The organizers plan to make QG are being developed in India. Also, the Second International Conference on
the videos and presentations of the lec- application of the latest statistical tools Quantitative Genetics, Sinauer Associates,
tures available on the web. for genetic dissection of QTs (developed Sunderland, 1987.
The only criticism which the author elsewhere) in animal/plant systems is being
has about the recent developments in the practised at few centres and that too
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. I thank Indian
area of QG and the presentations made at rather superficially. The funding agen-
National Science Academy, New Delhi for
ICQG3 is the widening gap between cies in India (ICAR, ICMR, CSIR, DST,
nominating me to visit China under CAS-
animal/plant breeders (including molecu- DBT, etc.) need to take notice of this poor INSA Bilateral Exchange Programme to parti-
lar breeders) and the geneticists on the state of the science of QG in our country cipate in ICQG3.
one hand, and the statisticians on the other. and take remedial measures to improve
There are only few practising animal or the situation. We can certainly learn a
plant breeders, who understand statistics lesson from research activity in our neigh-
underlying the genetic analysis of QTs, bour country, China, where not only high- P. K. Gupta, Molecular Biology Labora-
and still fewer statistical geneticists, who quality research in QG is underway in tory, Ch Charan Singh University, Meerut
ever practice animal and plant breeding. different laboratories, but national and 250 004, India.
Therefore, there is a need to develop hu- international conferences with participa- e-mail: pkgupta36@gmail.com

MEETING REPORT

Promising achievements and new challenges in agriculture


biotechnology*
By understanding global trends and na- national, regional and global agribio- exhibition, business forum, and a one-day
tional and regional needs, most of the technology market, there has to be a pol- ‘orchid symposium’. About 430 regis-
countries in Asia have been visible in ar- icy in place. The Malaysian Government tered participants and 103 speakers from
ticulating their support for agribiotech- had launched the National Biotechnology different institutions belonging to 28
nology as a new engine for economic Policy in 2005, and advancement of ag- countries participated in this five-day
growth. To place Malaysia in an advan- ribiotechnology is a part of it. The 4th event.
tageous position in the rapidly growing Asia Pacific Conference on Plant Tissue M. G. K. Jones (Murdoch University,
Culture and Agribiotechnology 2007 Perth, Australia) in his opening plenary
(APaCPA-2007) was held recently in lecture spoke on the current status of ag-
*A report on the ‘Asia Pacific Conference on Malaysia to look at the current agribio- ribiotechnology in the Asia region, and
Plant Tissue Culture and Agribiotechnology technology trends and scenario in Asia, presented examples of success and dis-
2007’, held at PWTC, Kuala Lumpur, Malay- to showcase what has been achieved so cussed future prospects for development.
sia during 17–21 June 2007, and organized
far and review the challenges and oppor- He highlighted that the world population
and sponsored by AIMST University, Minis-
try of Agriculture and Agro-based Industry,
tunities in agribiotechnology. The theme will increase by about 3 billion from the
and State Government of Kedah Darul Aman of the conference was ‘Biotechnology for current value to about 9 billion by 2050,
in collaboration with 11 institutions and under better food, health and quality living’. and a large proportion of this increase will
the auspices of ‘Asia Pacific Association of There were 12 plenary talks, seven con- be in the Asia-Pacific region. He pro-
Plant Tissue Culture and Agribiotechnology’. current sessions, and an embedded trade jected providing enough food for the ex-

1052 CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 93, NO. 8, 25 OCTOBER 2007


NEWS
panding population, improving human tial of quality improvement of sweet po- programmes which were supported by
health and living standards, replacing tato by increasing amylose content in CSIR, DBT, NBDB and ICMR, he
fossil fuels with renewable energy, an- sweet potato starch by inhibition of SBEII claimed that several interesting leads have
ticipating and/or responding to climate gene expression. been generated in terms of therapeuti-
change, more efficient use of water and The micropropagation technique, a cally important compounds, local plant-
fertilizers, and preserving the environment proven means of producing identical plants based pesticides, and plant-based natural
for future generations as challenges for on large scale, is an essential component dyes and other gene products of interest.
agribiotechnology in the Asia region. He of plant biotechnology. K. Schubert He also highlighted issues such as lack
emphasized that world trade poses (BioSynectics LLC, USA) discussed the of human resource with right capacity,
threats and good opportunities for the emerging opportunities and associated absence of interdisciplinary crosstalk,
transfer of plant and animal pathogens, challenges in plant biotechnology and limited number of universities and re-
which makes plant and animal biosecurity tissue culture. H. Randy (ISAAA, Philip- search institutions engaged in innovation
important than ever before. He affirmed pines) gave an overview on GM techno- and product development, limitations of
that challenges could be balanced by logy and elaborated on how it complements IPR/regulatory system(s), lack of trans-
rapid advances in the science and know- traditional breeding. S. C. Fernando (CRI, disciplinary institutional structure, inade-
ledge of diagnostics, production, and Sri Lanka) presented the Sri Lankan ex- quate strategic programming, weak or non-
quality traits. He also discussed the ma- perience in developing a reliable method existent public–private partnerships, and
jor advances in scientific knowledge and for clonal propagation of coconut, which insufficient programme-management skills
technology related to agribiotechnology, is an important palm in tropical coun- in funding agencies as real barriers to the
including genomics, proteomics, meta- tries. He highlighted various limiting fac- advancement of Indian biotechnology.
bolomics, and bioinformatics and sys- tors and achievements in coconut clonal D. Cowan (RCAM, UWC, Cape Town)
tems biology. Marker-assisted breeding propagation. C. L. Keng (USM, Malaysia) spoke on current status and future devel-
for crop and livestock improvement, new discussed the production of artemisinin opments in the field of metagenomics
products to promote the health and well- from cell suspension culture of Artemisia and its applicability in agribiotechnol-
being of consumers, and the development annua L. ogy. R. Samudrala (UW, USA) presented
and use of various GM crops were pro- A. Komamine (TU, Japan) highlighted novel computational methods for predic-
jected as examples of promising achieve- production of salt stress tolerant rice. Z. tion of relationships between proteins basi-
ments. Based on recent advances in Zhu (CAS, China) presented different cally based on comparative genomics. He
metabolic engineering of oilseed crops issues related to development of trans- highlighted that these predictions are
and the use of plants in therapeutics pro- genic rice in China. Oil palm is an similar to experimentally derived interac-
duction, he stated that these advances are important crop in Malaysia and other tions. These techniques can be exploited
only in the early stages of application tropical countries, and to increase palm to aid in rational engineering, either by
and in due time full potential will be oil yield is a challenge. M. Hamidah genetic modification or by marker-assisted
tapped which will benefit society, human (GBLSB, Malaysia) discussed in-depth, breeding and can help in improving hu-
health and the environment, and that will the efforts of Guthrie in the improvement man health and quality of life.
meet the food, feed and fibre needs of of oil palm tissue culture process and P. Lynch (UD, UK) discussed advance-
the growing population in Asia and rest highlighted the use of protein markers and ments in plant cryopreservation and high-
of the world in a sustainable manner. hormonal profiling approaches in im- lighted the importance of in vitro, long-
Y. Othman (University of Malaysia, provements of media formulations. H. E. term conservation of Allium germplasm
Malaysia) in her plenary talk discussed Chio (NTU, Taiwan) updated the audi- and initiatives of the IPK genebank. K.
various molecular techniques and strate- ence on green super bioinsecticide for Harding (DAMAR, Scotland, UK) gave
gies which could be used for improve- food crops and fibres. S. R. Thengane an overview on plant and algal cryopre-
ment of tropical crops, especially to deal (NCL, India) highlighted biodiversity in servation, its importance and various ap-
with virus infection and unique biotic and Calophyllum species and discussed key proaches to confirm the genetic integrity
abiotic challenges in agribiotechnology. aspects in its micropropagation. of stored samples. He highlighted the
She also highlighted the need to bridge M. V. Montagu (IPBDC, Belgium) in his concept of ‘cryobionomics’. N. K. Nirala
the knowledge gap for many tropical plenary talk gave an in-depth overview (Jawaharlal Nehru University, India) high-
crops, comparative approaches, need to on systems biology and plant-based sus- lighted promising achievements made in
use marginalized land, disease-resistant tainable economies. He highlighted the the development of artificial seeds of
genes and importance of collaborative recent technological advances and avowed grapes and its importance in the grape
efforts to tackle new challenges in ag- that the organization of multidisciplinary industry. M. D. D. Bandupriya (CRI, Sri
ribiotechnology. N. Najimudin (Universiti networks, technology transfer, know- Lanka) spoke on current status of cryo-
Sains Malaysia, Malaysia) spoke on nitro- ledge sharing, and more dynamic interac- preservation of encapsulated plumules of
gen fixation genes in Gram-positive bac- tions between molecular geneticists, coconut. Neem (Azadirachta indica A.
teria, their evolution and diversity. S. biochemists, plant breeders, ecologists Juss.) is an economically important plant
Swarup (National University of Singapore and economists will be a key to future and G. S. Shekhawat (DBB, India) dis-
(NUS), Singapore) discussed various ap- progress in delivering the benefits of cussed efforts to propagate this plant rap-
plications of metabolomics and genomics technological advances. S. Natesh (DBT, idly using tissue-culture techniques.
in understanding plant metabolic path- New Delhi, India) highlighted the achieve- R. E. Litz (UF, USA) highlighted the
ways. M. Otani (Ishikawa Prefectual ments and new challenges in Indian bio- importance of in vitro manipulation of
University, Japan) highlighted the poten- technology. By discussing the success of tropical fruit species. A. A. Kulkarni

CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 93, NO. 8, 25 OCTOBER 2007 1053


NEWS
(University of Pune, India) discussed algal DNA vaccines and for biomass presented promising achievements made
production of low-volume high-cost anti- transformation to reduce the usage of in understanding regulatory mechanisms
cancer compound, ‘taxol’ from Taxus fishmeal in aquaculture feeds. underlying orchid flower development.
species and highlighted the potential of M. W. Beilharz (UWA, Australia), A. C. In the session on biosafety and bio-
Withania somnifera in healthcare. Coun- Herington (QUT, Australia), N. Aso- ethics, B. Chassy (UI, USA) gave an
try status reports on what is happening in kanathan (AIMST University, Malaysia), overview of new developments in under-
China, India, Korea and Malaysia were T. V. Riley (QE-II-MC, Australia), L. M. standing safety of GM crops and empha-
discussed by X. Z. Hong (PU, CAS, Smith (CRC, Australia), S. L. Tan (Amgen, sized that the scientific community needs
China), S. Natesh (DBT/MST, India), J. USA), C. Kahler (UWA, Australia), S. to educate society on GM crops. S. Shan-
R. Liu (KRIBB, Korea), and A. Latifah Low (Stem Life, Malaysia), V. Tanavde tharam (Biologistics International LLC,
(UKM, Malaysia) respectively. P. P. S. (Bioinformatics Institute, Singapore), USA) highlighted the drivers for appro-
Teng (NIE-NTU, Singapore) gave an in- and S. A. Dhanaraj (AIMST University, priate regulatory oversight of agribio-
depth overview on the Asian stand in ac- Malaysia) discussed various aspects of technology, and the importance of public
cepting GM crops. He highlighted the healthcare biotechnology to highlight confidence in technology or biotech-
influence of ongoing international discus- achievements and challenges in the field. based products. B. Nathwong (BIOTEC,
sions over biosafety, food safety, label- V. S. Bisaria (IIT-New Delhi, India) Thailand) presented an overview and the
ling, trade (WTO, TRIPS) and biosafety highlighted impact of symbiotic fungi on achievements of different programmes
regulatory frameworks (UNEP–GEF) on the production of important metabolites implemented in Thailand to improve public
Asian countries. S. S. Rabian (FELDA, by plant cell culture. M. R. Samian (USM, awareness on GM crops, biosafety and
Malaysia), P. G. Bagali (Infovalley, Ma- Malaysia) discussed progress made in bioethics. All other speakers as well as
laysia), A. Anwar (Synamatix, Malay- conversion of palm oil to bioplastic, the poster presenters also highlighted
sia), B. A. Saeed (University of Karachi, which could be used as an alternative to various achievements along with chal-
Pakistan), M. R. Naghavi (UT, Iran), and non-degradable plastic. F. Chen (UHK, lenges in different sectors of agribiotech-
A. Eimanifar (IARC, Iran) highlighted Hong Kong), G. A. Ravi Shankar (CFTRI, nology. The business forum at the end of
various aspects of molecular markers, India), S. Vikineswary (UM, Malaysia), the conference highlighted the challenges
bioinformatics and their applications in K. Madhusudhanan (CPCRI, India), and and opportunities in agribiotechnology in
modern agribiotechnology. K. Marimuthu (AIMST University, Mala- the Asian region, to create wealth for the
K. M. Yusuf (UPM, Malaysia) in her ysia) highlighted prospects of functional well-being of the peoples of the region
plenary talk presented potential impact of food and nutraceuticals, value-added prod- and the world at large.
Newcastle disease virus (NDV) on human ucts from GM crops, mushrooms with an- Considering the influence and growing
cancers and highlighted the achieve- tioxidant activities, use of arecanut waste importance of biotechnology in all parts
ment(s) in defining anti-NDV peptides as substrates for low-cost production of of the world and Asia’s ardent desire to
which can inhibit replication of the virus. oyster mushroom, and limitations in become self-sufficient in food, health
Representative of G. H. Cassell (Eli Lilly, snakehead (freshwater fish, Channa and quality living, this conference pro-
Indianapolis, USA) discussed the role of striatus) propagation respectively. vided a platform to understand the current
the R&D-based pharmaceutical industry J. Arditti (UCI, USA) discussed the scenario, multidimensional challenges
in addressing global health challenges and history and biotechnology in orchid pro- and opportunities in agribiotechnology.
elaborated on Lilly’s multidrug-resistant pagation in the opening plenary talk of Encouraging feedback was received from
tuberculosis global partnership as a the one-day orchid symposium. He high- the participants. The mission to meet new
model. Y. Chisti (MU, New Zealand) gave lighted that orchids were in the forefront challenges in agribiotechnology is hard but
an extensive overview on the production of plant biotechnology since the last 100 not impossible. Information gathered
of high-value products from microalgae years. C. Y. Neng (EcoFirst Lab, Malaysia) through this conference could be useful
using biochemical engineering. He high- updated audience on orchid smuggling to develop a priority-based agenda for the
lighted that industrial production of high- using the example of slipper orchids further development of agribiotechnology
value products from microalgae can be (Paphiopedilum species), and highlighted in Asia. Nonetheless, addressing new is-
expensive and the expense is accentuated the use of DNA fingerprinting technol- sues effectively and in time will be a key
by inadequacies in photobioreactor engi- ogy and other measures to tackle it. Z. A. to make sure that as Asians we will not
neering. H. U. Eng (GS, Sabah, Malaysia) Aziz (UMS, Malaysia) discussed effec- be left behind in agribiotechnology.
discussed the current scenario in aqua- tiveness of in vitro technology and cryo-
culture industry in Asia (US$ 100 billion preservation to conserve orchid species
globally) and emphasized that agribio- endemic to Sabah (Malaysia). J. A. Harik- Bhore Subhash Janardhan, Molecular
technology can help aquaculture industry rishna (UM, Malaysia) highlighted the Biology Division, Melaka Institute of
by developing natural plant anti-viral biotechnological approaches to protect Biotechnology, Lot 7, Melaka Interna-
proteins, phyto-oestrogens for sex manipu- economically important orchids from tional Trade Center City, Ayer Keroh,
lation, seaweed hydrolysates for secre- Cymbidium mosaic virus and Odonto- 75450, Melaka, Malaysia.
togogue and immunostimulant properties, glossum ringspot virus. P. Kumar (NUS) e-mail: subhash@mib.gov.my

1054 CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 93, NO. 8, 25 OCTOBER 2007

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