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 earth’s 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 gene-

rich 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

be temperature controlled. The following equipments also will be purchased for

the operation of the facility.

Laminar Air Flow chamber - 2

Racks - 5

Refrigerator - 1

Autoclave - 2

Shaker Incubator - 1

Deep Freezer -1

Milestones

Number of years Expected work to be completed at different stages

1st year

6 months

Planning of infrastructure of the building6months

2 nd year

and

3 rd year

6 months

Construction of building6 months

6 months

6 months

4 th year 6 months Electrification ,air conditioning, plumping

and aluminium fabrication 6 months

5 th year One year

Purchasing of instruments

Incubation room Inoculation room

Washing areaFoyer

Coat room

Autoclaving AreaShelf or ChemicalsStorageWashing and preparation

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.

Item 1 st yr 2 nd yr 3 rd yr 4 th yr 5 th yr Total

1 building Planning 40,000

2 building

Construction

7.2lak

hs3 building

4 building Electrification

and plumping

3

lakhs

5

instrume

ntation

Purchasing

of

instruments

16.15

lakhs

Grand

Total

26.35

lakhs

Estimate (approximate)

1) Infrastructure

A) Building 600sq.ft

Construction Expense@1200 per sq.ft - 7.2 lakhs

B) Plumbing, electrification and air conditioning - 2 lakhs

C) Partitioning by aluminium fabrication - 1 lakhs

Total 10.2 lakhs

2) Equipments

a) Laminar Air flow Chamber (2nos) 2x 50,000 = 1.0 lakhs

b) Tissue culture racks (5 nos) 5x 2, 00000 = 10 lakhs

c) Shaker incubator (1no) 80,000x1 = 0.8 lakhs

d) Refrigerator (1no ) 25,000x1 = 25000

e) Autoclave (2nos) 150000x2 = 3.0 lakhs

f) Deep freezer (-20oC)(1 no) 100,000x1 = 1 lakh

Total 16.15

Grand Total 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.