LAHORE (Thursday, March 26): The second day of the international symposium on “Future Trends in Molecular Biological Research and its Applications in Agriculture and Health” at National Centre of Excellence in Molecular Biology, PU, on March 26, 2009 also saw a robust activity both at the Academia-Industry exhibition and at lecture hall. Many renowned companies in the field of molecular biology and agricultural products presents their products in exhibition. Two main events, a session of “Plant Molecular Biology” and a workshop on “Biosafety of GMO's (Genetically Modified Organisms)” were held on second day of the symposium. The event was attended by several heads of prominent academic institutes and research organizations from Pakistan .

Workshop on “Biosafety of GMO's” was started at morning session of the second day on the international symposium. The aim of the workshop was to discuss different approaches to monitor the resistance build up in target insects against recently approved eight Bt cotton varieties by Government of Pakistan. The workshop was chaired by Dr. Kausar Abdullah Malik, National Professor, F.C. College Lahore and co-chaired by Dr. Zahoor Ahmad, Ex-Director, Central cotton Research Institute and Dr. S. Riaz-ud-Din, Director CEMB, Lahore . Dr. Sajida Hassan, Foreign Faculty Professor, CEMB introduced the guests to audience. Dr. Tayyab Hussnain, CEMB introduce the workshop by emphasizing on importance of GMO cotton. He described the procedure to monitor resistance buildup in insects. He explained the Bt protein mode of action in the body of insects. A video lecture was also delivered by Dr. Neal Forrestor, Melbourne University Australia . He talked about different testing options for resistance build up in the target insects.

The second session of the symposium was presided by Syed Fakhir Imam, Former Speake, Punjab Assembly with co-chaired by Mr. Abdul Rashid Member, Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, Islamabad . In this session Dr. Tayyab Hussnain, CEMB, Lahore , presents an overview of plant molecular biology research at CEMB. He said that CEMB is producing quality seeds by advanced molecular methods like gene isolation from bacteria, their transformation to plants and production of modified seeds and checking their field performance at fourteen locations of Punjab . Dr. Saqlain Naqvi, PMAS University , Rawalpindi , presents his research on the activity of germin-like protein gene on rice root and its affects on iron SOD activity. Dr. Idrees Ahmad Nasir, CEMB, Lahore , talked on production methods of quality seeds of important crops and vegetables by using genetic techniques. He said that CEMB has developed Hybrid Bt Cotton, hybrid Bt Maize, Hybrid Tomato, Fungus resistant gladiolus Corns and virus free potato, mini-tuber and sugarcane. He also said that CEMB has developed synthetic seed production protocol for Carrot and Cucumber. Dr. Azeem Iqbal, CABB, University of Agriculture , Faisalabad , discussed the genetic diversity of Pakistani cotton. He said that simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers can be helpful for conserving elite cotton germplasm and developing future cotton breeding programs in Pakistan . Dr. Zubaida Yousaf, LCWU, Lahore , said that Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) technique could be utilized as the effect tool for the solution of inter/intra specific taxonomic problems in the species from Hyoscyamus clustered with Solanum and Capsicum. Dr. Nisar Ahmad, CABB, University of Agriculture , Faisalabad , described newly specific detection method for DNA transposom nDart-inserted genes in rice. Transposones are useful for gene-functional analysis to create variation and gene tagging. Dr. Bushra Rashid, CEMB, Lahore , said that drought stress can be adversely affected on the plant growth and productivity. She said that global climate changes have made draught a worldwide problem. She said that with the help of microarray technology we can predict the specific genes for drought stress in cotton. Dr. Zahoor Ahmad described the contribution of Ali Akbar Group in developing new varieties of cotton, maiz and other vegetable seeds. This is probably the biggest investment in private sector by Ali Akbar Group who has a team of researchers.