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Kerala Agricultural University, Thrissur

The history of agricultural education in Kerala can be traced back to the year 1896 when a scheme was evolved in the erstwhile Travancore State to train a few young men in scientific agriculture at the Demonstration Farm, Karamana, Thiruvananthapuram, presently, the Cropping Systems Research Centre under Kerala Agricultural University. Agriculture was introduced as an optional subject in the middle school classes in the State in 1922 when an Agricultural Middle School was started at Aluva, Ernakulam District. The popularity and usefulness of this school led to the starting of similar institutions at Kottarakkara and Konni in 1928 and 1931 respectively. Agriculture was later introduced as an optional subject for Intermediate Course in 1953. In 1955, the erstwhile Government of Travancore-Cochin started the Agricultural College and Research Institute at Vellayani, Thiruvananthapuram and the College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences at Mannuthy, Thrissur for imparting higher education in agricultural and veterinary sciences, respectively. These institutions were brought under the direct administrative control of the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Animal Husbandry, respectively. With the formation of Kerala State in 1956, these two colleges were affiliated to the University of Kerala. The post-graduate programmes leading to M.Sc. (Ag), M.V.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees were started in 1961, 1962 and 1965 respectively. On the recommendation of the Second National Education Commission (1964-66) headed by Dr. D.S. Kothari, the then Chairman of the University Grants Commission, one Agricultural University in each State was established. The State Agricultural Universities (SAUs) were established in India as an integral part of the National Agricultural Research System to give the much needed impetus to Agriculture Education and Research in the Country. As a result the Kerala Agricultural University (KAU) was established on 24th February 1971 by virtue of the Act 33 of 1971 and started functioning on 1st February 1972. The Kerala Agricultural University is the 15th in the series of the SAUs. In accordance with the provisions of KAU Act of 1971, the Agricultural College and Research Institute at Vellayani, and the College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Mannuthy, were brought under the Kerala Agricultural University. In addition, twenty one agricultural and animal husbandry research stations were also transferred to the KAU for taking up research and extension programmes on various crops, animals, birds, etc. During 2011, Kerala Agricultural University was trifurcated into Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (KVASU), Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies (KUFOS) and Kerala Agricultural University (KAU). Now the University has seven colleges (four Agriculture, one Agricultural Engineering, one Forestry, one Co-operation Banking & Management), six RARSs, seven KVKs, 15 Research Stations and 16 Research and Extension Units under the faculties of Agriculture, Agricultural Engineering and Forestry. In addition, one Academy on Climate Change Adaptation and one Institute of Agricultural Technology offering M.Sc. (Integrated) Climate Change Adaptation and Diploma in Agricultural Sciences respectively are also functioning in Kerala Agricultural University.

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Subject: Plant Biotechnology × Author: Amala, Benny. × Author: KAU × End date: 2022 × Start date: 2020 × Type: Thesis ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Silver nanoparticles for agrobacterium mediated genetic transformation
    (Department of Plant Biotechnology, College of Agriculture, Vellayani, 2020) Amala, Benny.; KAU
    The study entitled “Silver nanoparticles for Agrobacterium mediated transformation” was carried out during 2018 - 2020 in the Department of Plant Biotechnology, College of Agriculture, Vellayani. The objective of the study was to evaluate the efficacy of silver nanoparticles in improving the transformation efficiency of Agrobacterium tumefaciens. Growth kinetics of Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain EHA105 was determined by plotting Absorbance (OD600) vs Time. The exponential phase started 12 h after inoculation. Toxicity assay of silver nanoparticles (100 nm) on Agrobacterium cells was carried out in the exponential phase by exposing to different concentrations of silver nanoparticles viz., 0.01, 1, 5, 10 and 20 mgL-1. Maximum toxicity (91%) was recorded at a concentration of 20 mg L-1 and minimum (3.3%) at a concentration of 0.01 mgL-1. The half maximal effective concentration (EC50) was estimated as 8.707 mgL-1 by carrying out Probit analysis using the SPSS software. Efficacy of different concentrations of silver nanoparticles (below EC50 value) for induction of competency and transformation of Agrobacterium tumefaciens with pART27 (11.6 kb) plasmid vector was assessed and compared with conventional calcium chloride (20 mM) freeze-thaw technique. The different techniques tried were silver nanoparticles alone, silver nanoparticles with calcium chloride, silver nanoparticles with freeze-thaw and silver nanoparticles with calcium chloride along with freeze-thaw. For the treatments involving silver nanoparticles alone, six different concentrations (0.01, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 6 mgL-1) were tried. The four concentrations (0.01, 0.5, 1, 2 mgL-1) that recorded better transformation efficiency were selected for inclusion in combinations with calcium chloride and freeze-thaw technique. All the treatments were carried out with cultures at an early exponential phase and the transformants were selected on Luria Bertani agar supplemented with rifampicin (100 μg/mL) and spectinomycin (100 μg/mL). Transformation efficiency of different techniques was assessed. Colonies started appearing in the plates after 48 h in conventional technique and treatments involving silver nanoparticles with calcium chloride, whereas, in all other treatments involving silver nanoparticles, colonies were observed after 60 h of plating. Size of the colonies that emerged from cells involving treatments with silver nanoparticles were smaller compared to that of conventional technique. However, all treatments involving silver nanoparticles showed significantly higher or comparable transformation efficiency with conventional technique (2.31 log cfu/μg of DNA) except two treatments (1 mgL-1 or 2 mgL-1 of silver nanoparticles with freeze-thaw). Maximum transformation efficiency (3.34 log cfu/μg of DNA) was recorded in the treatment with combination of 0.5 mgL-1 silver nanoparticles along with calcium chloride (20 mM) which was on par with 0.01 mgL-1 silver nanoparticles along with calcium chloride (3.33 log cfu/ μg of DNA). Transformation was confirmed by the re-isolation of plasmid from the transformed colonies. Colony PCR of the transformed colonies using nptII gene specific primer exhibited an amplicon of predicted size (475 bp) confirming transformation. Results of the present study indicated that silver nanoparticles can improve transformation efficiency in Agrobacterium tumefaciens. Silver nanoparticles of size 100 nm at a concentration of 0.01 mgL-1 with calcium chloride (20 mM) showed ten-fold increase in the transformation efficiency (3.3 3 log cfu/μg of DNA) of Agrobacterium tumefaciens compared to conventional calcium chloride freeze-thaw technique. From the study it was inferred that induction of competency using silver nanoparticles is economically feasible.