RESEARCH AREAS

BTC engages in contemporary research at the interface of disciplines constituting biotechnology in its broadest definition. Research programmes aim to integrate all the fields of agriculture in biotechnology and emphasize on their relevance to the farmers, tribals and weaker sections of society in Madhya Pradesh. A broad range of research areas planned under the Biotechnology Centre includes:

• Plant Tissue Culture
• DNA Fingerprinting
• Molecular Breeding
• Genetic Transformation
• Microbial Biotechnology
• Fermentation Technology

RESEARCH PROJECTS

Since the inception of BTC, 6 research and development projects have already been concluded successfully. At present following projects are running at the Centre:

1. ICAR National Agricultural Technology Project (NATP) Competitive Grant Programme (CGP) on In vitro mass propagation of some selected Medicinal Plants of Madhya Pradesh, during 2001-04. ₹34.3 lakhs.
2. Madhya Pradesh State Agriculture Marketing Board, (Mandi Cess fund), Bhopal for “Establishment of Biotechnology Centre” during 2003-08 (PI: Director, Biotechnology Centre) ₹7.2 Corers.
3. Department of Agriculture & Cooperation, Government of India funded project on “Use of Biotechnology in Agriculture Including Tissue Culture” during 2007-08 (PI: Dr. S. Tiwari) ₹56 lakhs.
4. ICAR funded project entitled “Experiential learning - setting up of facilities for hands on training in plant tissue culture” during 2006-07 (PI: Dr. S. Tiwari) for 62.00 lakhs.
5. M.P. State Minor Forest Produce Federation funded Project on “DNA fingerprinting of Medicinal Plants” during 2008-11 (PI: Dr. N. Saini) ₹14.6 lakhs.
6. M.P. Council of Science & Technology, Bhopal funded Project on “Low cost production technology for microbial pigments using by-products of food processing” during 2008-12 (PI: Dr. L.P.S. Rajput) ₹4.84 lakhs.
7. Department of Science and Technology, New Delhi funded DST Fast-Track Young Scientist Scheme on “Development of Biotechnological tools and techniques for the Identification of edible and non-edible mushrooms” during 2004-07 (PI: Dr. A. Varma-Nigam) ₹11 lakhs.
8. Department of Biotechnology, New Delhi “Integrated agri-biotechnology for socio-economic upliftment of Baiga and Gond tribes of Madhya Pradesh” during 2010-14 (PI: Dr. S. Tiwari) ₹1.68 Crores.
9. Department of Biotechnology, New Delhi Network project on “Rapid conversion of normal maize inbreds to quality protein maize and further enhancement of limiting amino acid in elite inbreds through marker assisted selection” during 2009-15 (Dr. N. Saini / Dr. S. Tiwari) ₹52 lakhs.
10. MPCST, Bhopal project entitled “Development of transgenic oat (Avena sativum) over-expressing fungal phytase gene” during 2010-14 (PI: Dr. S. Tiwari) ₹7.82 lakhs
11. Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) project on “Molecular marker based selection of resistant/ tolerant genotype of soybean against biotic stresses” during 2012-14 (PI: Dr. S. Tiwari) ₹17.44 lakhs. Part-I
12. Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) project on Molecular characterization of whitefly and yellow mosaic virus for soybean disease control in East Madhya Pradesh 2012-14 (PI: Mrs. K. Tantwai) 14.78 lakhs.
13. DST Fast Track Project on “Metagenomic analysis of the 1-aminocyclopropane-1 carboxylate deaminase gene (acdS) diversity of rhizospheric and endophytic bacterial population associated with wheat” during 2013-16 (PI: Dr. Iti Gontia-Mishra) ₹24.50.
14. Madhya Pradesh State Agriculture Marketing Board, Bhopal for “DNA Fingerprinting of important crops of Madhya Pradesh” during 2013-16 (PI: Dr. S. Tiwari) ₹200 lakhs.
15. Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) project on “Molecular marker evaluation of soybean cultivars for gene based cultivar selection” Part-II during 2014-16 (PI: Dr. S. Tiwari) ₹9.22 lakhs.
16. Madhya Pradesh State Agriculture Marketing Board, Bhopal for “Strengthening of Biotechnology Centre” during 2014-17 (PI: Dr. S. Tiwari) ₹200 lakhs.
17. M.P. Council of Science & Technology, Bhopal funded Project on “Low cost processing technology for bioethanol production from waste potatoes using different microorganisms” during 2015-17 (PI: Dr. L.P.S. Rajput) ₹4.58 lakhs.
18. Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), GoI, New Delhi funded National Initiative for Setting-up of Bio-Design Innovation Centre during 2016-21 (PI: Dr. S. Tiwari) ₹100 lakhs
19. Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, New Delhi funded Project entitled "Studies on defense-related genes in response to charcoal rot in soybean" during 2016-18 (PI: Dr. Reena Deshmukh, PDF/ Supervisor: Dr. S. Tiwari ) ₹ 19.2 Lakhs.
20. Collaborative Project with Chiba University, Japan and Jawaharlal Nehru Agricultural University, Jabalpur on “Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) Focusing on school lunch with adopting traditional crops in Madhya Pradesh (MP)” during 2017-19 (PI: Dr. LPS Rajput/ Dr. K. Tantwai) ₹10 lakhs.
21. Madhya Pradesh Science and Technology, Bhopal funded project on “Morphological and molecular variability in Phytophthora nicotianea f. sp. Sesame causing blight of sesame” during 2019-2022 (PI: Dr. Sushma Nema/ Dr. K. Tantwai) ₹9.89 lakhs.
22. Science and Engineering Research Board, Department of Science and Technology, New Delhi funded project on “Molecular characterization of zinc solubilizing bacterial community associated with rice rhizosphere and their role in modulation of zinc transporter genes” during 2018-2020 (PI: Iti Gontia-Mishra) ₹19.20 lakhs.
23. Department of Biotechnology, New Delhi funded project on “Germplasm Collection, Characterization and Development of regeneration protocol of chironji (Buchanania lanzan) from protected forest area of Madhya Pradesh” (PI: R.S. Sharma) ₹ 55.66 lakhs.

Research Fellow schemes

1. Department of Biotechnology (DBT) Research Associateship project on “Isolation and characterization of phy gene from fungi and its overexpression in oat (Avena sativa)” during 2010-13 (Supervisor: Dr. S. Tiwari, RA: Dr. Iti Gontia) ₹11.44 lakhs.
2. Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), New Delhi “SRF” funded for research on “Studies on genetic transformation for yellow mosaic virus resistance in soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merrill)” during 2009-12 (Supervisor: Dr. S. Tiwari, Fellow: Mr. Sunil Kumar) ₹6.12 lakhs.
3. Department of Science and Technology (DST), New Delhi “INSPIRE” funded for research on “Molecular characterization of kodo and kutki of Madhya Pradesh” during 2014-2017 (Supervisor: Dr. S. Tiwari, RA: Dr. Iti Gontia) ₹11.44 lakhs.
4. Department of Science and Technology (DST), New Delhi “INSPIRE” funded for research on “Molecular characterization of kodo and kutki of Madhya Pradesh” during 2014-2017 (Supervisor: Dr. S. Tiwari, Fellow: Ms. Ritu Sharma) ₹8.38 lakhs.
5. Department of Science and Technology (DST), New Delhi “INSPIRE” funded for research on “Molecular characterization and identification of different plant species in Fabaceae family using different DNA Barcode loci” during 2016-2019 (Supervisor: Dr. S. Tiwari, Fellow: Ms. Sumana Sikdar) ₹8.38 lakhs.

SALIENT ACHIEVEMENTS

• Since inception, BTC has delivered 89 post-graduates, 6 Ph.D. and 17 dissertations of students from other institutes. In addition, 18 students of this Centre have cleared National Eligibility Test (NET).
• Students and faculty of BTC have published 88 research articles in journals of repute and several articles in souvenir, compendiums, proceedings of national and international conferences, seminar, etc.
• Development of micropropagation protocol of banana, sugarcane, potato and pomegranate.
• Plant tissue culture of some important medicinal plants of Madhya Pradesh such as Chlorophytum borivilianum, Commiphora wightii, Oroxylum indicum, Pterocarpus marsupium and Rauwolfia serpentina.
• Development of genetically modified micro-organism for enhanced phytase production from agricultural by-products
• Development of efficient regeneration protocols in linseed, oat, soybean, wheat, potato, onion, brahmi, ashwagandha, etc.
• Development of purple blotch resistant onion lines using in vitro selection
• Development of techniques for assessment of genetic fidelity during micropropagation of Sugarcane, Safed musli, Sarpagandha and Brahmi using molecular markers for true to the type clone production
• Establishment of protocol for virus free Potato micro-tuber production
• Development of molecular diagnostics of various viral diseases using ELISA and developed molecular markers for the detection of PVX, PLRV, PVM and PVY in potato through Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR).
• Molecular characterization for Rhizoctonia aerial blight and Rhizoctonia root rot resistance in soybean, ascochyta blight and Fusarium wilt resistance in chickpea, Yellow Mosaic Virus disease resistance in soybean and leaf rust resistance in wheat.
• Developed gene constructs and genetically modified tobacco, soybean for virus resistance using antisense RNA and oats for overexpression of phytase enzyme.
• Genetic diversity assessment of ricebean (Vigna umbellate) and water chestnut (Trapa natans) using morphological, physiological and molecular analysis.
• DNA fingerprinting of important medicinal plants of Madhya Pradesh such as Safed Musli (Chlorophytum borivillianum), Brahmi (Bacopa monnieri), Aloe (Aloe barbadensis), Pattharchur (Coleus forkscohlii) and Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera).
• Twenty-eight 18S and 16S rRNA gene sequences from phytase producing fungi and bacteria have been registered in NCBI GenBank.
• Molecular tagging for drought tolerance in wheat for marker assisted selection.
• Rapid conversion of normal maize inbreds to quality protein maize (QPM) and further enhancement of limiting amino acid in elite inbreds through marker assisted selection for QPM hybrid development.
• Molecular characterization of mungbean yellow mosaic virus and white fly for soybean disease control in East Madhya Pradesh.
• Molecular marker evaluation of soybean cultivars for 16 morphological traits for gene-based cultivar selection.
• Isolation and characterization of phy gene from fungi and its transformation in oats.
• Developed technology for microbial pigment production using fungus Monascus perpureus from agri-by-products and their use in food.
• Production technology of bioethanol using bacteria (Zymomonas mobilis) and yeast (Saccharomysis cerevisiae) from agri-waste products.