Press Release
Mangaluru, Jan 27: The 35th meeting of the Plant Tissue Culture Association of India will be held in Mangaluru at St Aloysius College, from January 29–31. The association holds a meeting, together with a symposium every year since 35 years.
These meetings are ordinarily held in National Institutes of Research(BARC, TERI, CPCRI, CFTRI, IISER etc) and major universities Delhi, Calcutta, Jaipur etc. St Aloysius College was the first college to been given the privilege of hosting the meeting in 2004.
The 36th meeting and symposium will be held for the second time in Mangaluru at the St Aloysius College. Because of the integrated use of tissue culture, biochemistry, molecular biology and microbiology, biotechnology has become a tool to achieve technological application of biology. Biotechnology has been able to support food security by developing techniques to increase the production of planting material and planting area, resistance to biotic and non biotic stress, plant protection and quality of the produce.
Biotechnology has been used as a tool for large scale multiplication of horticulture plants helping to change the economy of several countries. It served to produce large amounts of saplings of forest trees for reforestation of degraded areas.
Secondary metabolites cannot be synthesized economically on a commercial basis. They are therefore extracted from plants cultivated in fields or growing in wild stands resulting in dwindling of these resources. To overcome these limitations biotechnologists use plant cell and tissue culture rather than whole plants for the extraction of certain secondary metabolites.
The theme of the present symposium is ‘Biotechnology and Molecular Biology for Industry and the Common Man’. It aims to bring together scientists, academicians, industrialists and students working in the field of tissue culture, biotechnology and molecular biology and offer them an opportunity to present their research to the science oriented audience of PTCA (I) Annual Meeting attendees. It will help them to discuss their work and make connections with leading scientists, educators and industrialists. They can interact with one another to make efficient use for the practical application of their knowhow for industry as well as for the common man.