1

TITLE:

PROPOSAL

FOR

ADVANCED

PLANT

TISSUE

CULTURE

FACILITY (2012-2017) 2 Complete address of the implementing School / centre/ office: School of Biosciences Mahatma Gandhi University Kottayam 3 Abstract of the proposal: The proposal is aimed at up gradation and expansion of the plant tissue culture facility of the school, so as to benefit teaching, training and research in the field. Since the school lacks sufficient space for the said facility a new building is proposed The building is partitioned into five areas containing Foyer area and coat room, Preparation room and Sterilization room ,Inoculation room with multiple Laminar Air Flows and Incubation room (temperature, humidity, light controlled) with 5 racks. The total expected budget outlay is Rs 26.35 lakhs spread over a period of 5 years. 4 Introduction and motivation of the proposal School of Biosciences with 4 M Sc programmes (M Sc in Biotechnology, Microbiology, Biochemistry and Biophysics), M Phil programme and Research in life sciences, train approximately 60 students every year. The existing plant tissue culture facility was established long back to cater a far less number of students. As the student input increased, there was no concomitant increase in tissue culture laboratory facilities. Presently due to the unavailability of space, preparation, inoculation and incubation facilities, the Research students are forced to outsource their work by paying from their own pocket. Giving proper training to the M Sc students is also impaired due to the above mentioned facts. Presently about 10 research students, 5 M Phil students and 35 M Sc students are actively involved in works. Concerning plant tissue culture and many more

are interested in the same in their future works as a part of their research work. We found it quite difficult to continue on going research programmes. In view of these we propose a new advanced tissue culture facility. 5 Regional and national importance India contains over 5% of the worlds diversity though it covers only 2% of the earths surface. It is also one of the biodiversity hotspots of the richest and highly endangered eco-regions of the world. At present, there is a worldwide movement for assessing the plant resources and searching for new plants, which are of medicinal and economical value and importance. Researchers are focusing mainly on ethno botanical and ethno medicinal investigation to fulfill the increasing demand of herbal products. Hence medicinal plants are now under great pressure due to their excessive collection or exploitation. Continuous exploitation of several medicinal plant species and substantial loss of their habitats have resulted in the population decline of many high value medicinal plant species over the years (Planning commission, Government of India, 2000) . The degree of threat to natural populations of medicinal plants has increased because more than 90% of medicinal plant raw material for herbal industries in India and also for export is drawn from natural habitats. The primary threat to medicinal plants is, those that affect any kind of biodiversity. The weakening of customary laws has often proved to be easily diluted by modern socio-economic forces. There are many other potential causes of rarity in medicinal plant species, such as habitat specificity, narrow range of distribution, land use disturbance, introduction of non-natives, habitat alteration, climatic changes, heavy livestock grazing, and explosion of human population, fragmentation and degradation of population, population bottleneck and genetic drift Among the nearly 15,000 flowering plants documented, many of them are used as sources of medicine. In the developing nations, almost 80% people depend on these plants for medicine because of their easy availability and low cost of treatment. The modern allopathic system of medicine is

known to produce serious side effects and resistance against antibiotics, which make these drugs nonpotent. Western Ghats bordering the state of Kerala is considered to be a biodiversity hotspot. . Many medicinal plants are endemic to this region. Many of them are listed in the red data book and have endangered status India is a major centre of origin and diversity of crop and medicinal plants. It holds an extraordinary significance among the top generich countries of the world relating to its abundantly rich land race diversity in agricultural and horticultural crops and their wild relatives. India possesses about 20,000 species of higher plants and one third of it being endemic and 500 species are categorized to have medicinal value. The Southern Western Ghats is one of the major repositories of endemic and medicinal plants. It harbors around 4,000 species of higher plants of which 450 species belonging to 150 Natural orders are endangered. The red list category in this region is increasing and the valuable genetic resources are being lost at a rapid rate due to habitat destruction, environmental changes, natural calamities and more reasonably through over-exploitation. Conservation and management of genetic resources is a very important activity for developing new cultivars. Genetic resources are the raw material with potential for valuable research effort and development. R and D effort using modern in vitro conservation and cryobioligical techniques has resulted in the development of conservation protocols outside the natural habitats, besides conservation in their centers of origin and diversity. An integrated approach for conservation and management should be adopted, based on multiple conservation strategies. The conventional methods used to conserve Genetic Resources have been supplemented in recent years by rapid developments in plant biotechnology. There are four main areas of biotechnology, which can assist plant conservation programmes. 1) Molecular marker technology, 2) Molecular diagnostics, 3) Tissue culture (in vitro technologies) and 4) Cryopreservation

Tissue culture (or in vitro) technologies have had a major impact on the ex situ conservation of plant genetic resources and importantly, disease indexed in vitro -maintained germplasm provides an excellent means of mediating international germplasm exchange. Micropropagation, using somatic embryo and shoot culture techniques assists many crop plant improvement programmes and increasingly these methods are being used for the conservation of endangered plant species. Crop plants, which are vegetatively propagated, present particular conservation problems, as their seeds are not available for banking. Whilst field gene banks provide important conservation options, germplasm maintained in this manner can be at risk from pathogen attack and climatic damage. For vegetatively propagated species, in vitro conservation using tissue culture methods is the only reliable, long-term means of preservation. Storage in the active growing state or under reduced (slow) growth provides cost effective, medium-term conservation options. Most major, international germplasm centers use in vitro conservation as their method of choice for vegetatively propagated crops 6 Objectives To upgrade and expand the plant tissue culture facility of the school, 1. To benefit teaching for M.Sc students 2. For developing training skills for students and teachers from out side university 3. For improving research facility in this field. 7 &8 Methods of implementation and milestones The proposed facility requires the construction of a new building since the existing facility in the school is designed primarily for the purpose of MSc teaching and training. The up gradation of the facility is required for the development of the said facility for making it suit the needs of research. The proposed building will be and of size 600 sq ft and partitioned into washing area and a foyer, coat room, preparation room, inoculation room, and incubation room to ensure maximum sterility akin to commercial ventures. The partitioning

of the building will be done by aluminum fabrication. The facility will be supplied water supply and electricity on a continuous basis and the incubation room will Incubation room Inoculation room Autoclaving Area Shelf or Chemicals Storage Washing and preparation

Washing area Foyer

Coat room

be temperature controlled. The following equipments also will be purchased for the operation of the facility. Laminar Air Flow chamber Racks Refrigerator Autoclave Shaker Incubator Deep Freezer Milestones
Number of years 1st year 2 nd year and 3 rd year 4 th year 5 th year Expected work to be completed at different stages 6 months 6months Planning of infrastructure of the building 6 months 6 months 6 months 6 months 6 months 6 months One year Electrification ,air conditioning, plumping and aluminium fabrication Purchasing of instruments Construction of building

-2 -5 -1 -2 -1 -1

Figure 1 Rough sketch of the proposed facility

9. Expected outcome A Modern plant tissue culture facility of industrial standards will be established. 10. Budget
Sl . No. 1 2 3 4 5 Item building building building building instrum entation Grand Total Construction Electrification and plumping Purchasing of instruments 26.35 lakhs 1 st yr Planning 2 nd yr 3 rd yr 4 th yr 5 th yr Total 40,000 7.2lak hs 3 lakhs 16.15 lakhs

Estimate (approximate)
1) Infrastructure A) Building 600sq.ft Construction Expense@1200 per sq.ft B) Plumbing, electrification and air conditioning C) Partitioning by aluminium fabrication Total 2) Equipments 7.2 lakhs 2 lakhs 1 lakhs 10.2 lakhs

a) Laminar Air flow Chamber (2nos) b) Tissue culture racks (5 nos) c) Shaker incubator (1no) d) Refrigerator (1no ) e) Autoclave (2nos) f) Deep freezer (-20oC)(1 no) Total Grand Total

2x 50,000 80,000x1 25,000x1 150000x2 100,000x1

= 1.0 lakhs = = = 0.8 lakhs 25000 1 lakh

5x 2, 00000 = 10 lakhs

= 3.0 lakhs

16.15 26.35 lakhs

11. Justification of each head: Construction of building: The existing plant tissue culture facility is not sufficient for the students and research scholars in the school of biosciences due to the unavailability of space, preparation, inoculation and incubation facilities. It quite difficult to continue on going research programmes. In view of these we propose a new advanced tissue culture facility. Purchasing of instruments: for establishing a modern tissue culture lab with industrial facilities.