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Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat

Assam Agricultural University is the first institution of its kind in the whole of North-Eastern Region of India. The main goal of this institution is to produce globally competitive human resources in farm sectorand to carry out research in both conventional and frontier areas for production optimization as well as to disseminate the generated technologies as public good for benefitting the food growers/produces and traders involved in the sector while emphasizing on sustainability, equity and overall food security at household level. Genesis of AAU - The embryo of the agricultural research in the state of Assam was formed as early as 1897 with the establishment of the Upper Shillong Experimental Farm (now in Meghalaya) just after about a decade of creation of the agricultural department in 1882. However, the seeds of agricultural research in today’s Assam were sown in the dawn of the twentieth century with the establishment of two Rice Experimental Stations, one at Karimganj in Barak valley in 1913 and the other at Titabor in Brahmaputra valley in 1923. Subsequent to these research stations, a number of research stations were established to conduct research on important crops, more specifically, jute, pulses, oilseeds etc. The Assam Agricultural University was established on April 1, 1969 under The Assam Agricultural University Act, 1968’ with the mandate of imparting farm education, conduct research in agriculture and allied sciences and to effectively disseminate technologies so generated. Before establishment of the University, there were altogether 17 research schemes/projects in the state under the Department of Agriculture. By July 1973, all the research projects and 10 experimental farms were transferred by the Government of Assam to the AAU which already inherited the College of Agriculture and its farm at Barbheta, Jorhat and College of Veterinary Sciences at Khanapara, Guwahati. Subsequently, College of Community Science at Jorhat (1969), College of Fisheries at Raha (1988), Biswanath College of Agriculture at Biswanath Chariali (1988) and Lakhimpur College of Veterinary Science at Joyhing, North Lakhimpur (1988) were established. Presently, the University has three more colleges under its jurisdiction, viz., Sarat Chandra Singha College of Agriculture, Chapar, College of Horticulture, Nalbari & College of Sericulture, Titabar. Similarly, few more regional research stations at Shillongani, Diphu, Gossaigaon, Lakhimpur; and commodity research stations at Kahikuchi, Buralikson, Tinsukia, Kharua, Burnihat and Mandira were added to generate location and crop specific agricultural production packages.

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20151
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Subject: Agricultural Biotechnology × Author: Devi, Kamalakshi × End date: 2017 × Thesis Type: Ph.D ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Transcriptome sequencing of Cymbopogon winterianus and characterization of metabolic pathway genes
    (AAU, Jorhat, 2015) Devi, Kamalakshi; Sen, Priyabrata
    Citronella (Cymbopogon winterianus) is an aromatic and medicinal grass grown for commercial and industrial purpose due to its large repository of isoprenoids compounds known for its anti-tumoral, antibacterial, anti-fungal, antiviral, anti-cancerous and detoxifying properties as well as use as natural insect repellent properties. Despite of having numbers of valuable utilities, the genes involved in the biosynthetic pathway of these terpenes in citronella are not yet clearly elucidated. Keeping these points in view, the present study is formulated as a pioneering attempt to generate a large amount of molecular level information for citronella followed by identification of secondary metabolite associated gene. The whole transcriptome sequencing of leaf and root tissues of citronella (Cv. Jorlab-1) was carried out on Illumina MiSeq NGS plateform using Paired end (PE) 2x250bp library. A total of 11.7 Gb data were generated which upon de novo assembly yielded 68,986 unigenes. The complete bioinformatic analysis of these genes resulted : functional annotation of 63,454 unigenes along with 5478 novel genes; GO annotation of 56,621 unigenes; GO enrichment analysis of 218 secondary metabolite associated genes; detection of 3,851 putative SSR motifs and KEGG pathway analysis annotated 3,362 unigenes. The RT and qRT PCR analysis of the 20 secondary metabolite associated genes were in line with the findings from differential expression study. The regulatory relation of miRNA & TF with secondary metabolite associated genes revealed 14 pre-miRNA targets 29 TFs and 4 genes. There were three key regulatory enzymes of terpenoid backbone synthesis pathway viz.1-deoxy-D-xylulose-5-phosphate reductoisomerase (DXR) (GenBank: KJ749651), 3-hydroxy-3-methyl-glutaryl-CoA reductase (HMGR) (GenBank: KM504513) and Geranylgeranyl pyrophosphate synthase (GGPPS) (GenBank: KP017769) of citronella analyzed further. The full length gene sequence of these genes were obtained by performing 5’ RACE PCR. The complete in silico proteomics analysis of the three proteins included analysis of primary protein sequence, phylogeny, physico-chemical property of the proteins, homology modeling and model validation along with molecular dynamic simulation and finally docking of co factor (NADPH). The 3D structure analysis of the proteins gave a clear insight about the catalytic sites, substrate and cofactor binding pockets and various conserved motifs of these proteins. It can be concluded that, this work sets the stage for multi-faceted future improvement of the plant, through discovery of new genes, marker-assisted breeding or genetic engineering, on this species as well as for other species of Poaceae and terpene producing medicinal plants.