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Research and Development
‘The cure to any problem is to innovate a substitute out of its current predicament...with our R&D we try to fight the food crisis in India’
Mahyco strongly believes R&D is the key to producing superior products and maintaining market leadership. This belief has led to several milestones in Mahyco's illustrious history. Mahyco is the first seed company world-wide to successfully commercialize F1 hybrid cotton based on GMS/CMS system. It is also the first private enterprise in India to produce and market hybrids in sorghum, pearl millet, wheat and sunflower. Mahyco has a broad germplasm base to ensure success in its breeding programmes.
Mahyco also undertakes its research at numerous centres all over the country. In addition, the multi-locational crop performance testing programme operates from 18 different centres across the country.
Research in Plant Biotechnology
Mahyco has been playing a leadership role in delivering biotechnology crops to the Indian farmer.
Plant biotechnology can play an important role in improving human health as well as providing economic benefits to the farmer who use genetically enhanced seeds. Better crop pest and disease tolerance, fewer applications of pesticides, better nutritive value and higher yields are some of the benefits of biotechnology crops available now and in the near future.
At Mahyco, plant biotechnology is viewed as a tool to be used in a selective manner, as an integral part of plant breeding programs. Traits of value which are difficult to breed for, or are absent in germplasm available to breeders, are the focus of biotechnology research at Mahyco. These traits, when made available, enable our breeders to incorporate them in a precise manner, eliminating unwanted traits that could be carried along in traditional breeding methods.
In 1998, Mahyco established a research facility, the Mahyco Research Centre, near Jalna, Maharashtra, to conduct cutting-edge biotechnology research in a number of areas relevant to crop improvement and productivity; while still remaining close to its roots in rural agriculture and seeds research.
Major research areas include crop genomics, crop transformation, plant-virus interactions, microbiology, abiotic stress tolerance, molecular and conventional entomology and diagnostics (www.desigendiagnostics.com ).
Mahyco Research @ a glance
Molecular Breeding and Applied Genomics
From Genomics in the Lab to Improved Hybrids in Farmers' Fields
The primary goal of molecular breeding program is to develop, validate and apply molecular marker technology to enhance crop breeding. Using DNA markers in plant breeding with marker-assisted selection (MAS) could greatly improve the efficiency of selection, leading to the accelerated development of new crop varieties. Marker assisted backcrossing programs implemented in various crops significantly reduce plant selection cycle times.
Markers have been extensively used for crop improvement, DNA fingerprinting, genetic mapping, seed purity testing and understanding the molecular basis of heterosis for future crop improvement efforts. Genomics and bioinformatics are well integrated into the programme for effective application of markers to plant breeding. A comparative genomics approach is applied for certain breeding programmes, where the genome information of one crop is used to understand the other crop for which no genome information is available. Development and optimisation of cost-effective high throughput genotyping technologies is an integral part of our efforts, using e SSR and SNP based genotyping technologies as well as advanced technologies such as next generation sequencing.
Crop Transformation
Mahyco has world-class facilities for genetic transformations of crop plants and their characterisation. Plant transformation research is being pursued in more than 10 different crops including rice, cotton, wheat, brinjal (eggplant), okra and cauliflower. Biotech crops developed with value added traits are in different stages of the product development process. Currently the active trait development programs include a number of genes for biotic and abiotic tolerance. We have developed proprietary crop transformation technologies for a number of crops. Mahyco is using an array of advanced plant transformation technologies including technologies for development of selectable marker-free plants, expressing only the genes of interest.
Plant-Virus Interactions
Major viruses infecting cotton, okra, tomato, chilli pepper and brinjal in India such as Geminiviruses, Tospoviruses and Ilarviruses are the focus of this programme, using a combination of field and molecular techniques. As several of the viruses are transmitted by insects, understanding the virus vectoring ability of the insects is an important area of research. The ways in which plants respond to virus infections in a given environment are analysed to understand natural resistance mechanisms that exist in a crop species against a particular pathogen. These sources of resistance may be non-host or host-specific, and an understanding of their mechanisms of action and inheritance would be of great value to the breeder. Candidate genes involved in virus resistance or susceptibility are also analysed. Other approaches include gene discovery programmes aimed at identifying biological functions using RNAi approaches for candidate genes with hitherto unknown functions and also to assign possible new functions in signalling pathways previously not described for that particular gene.
Molecular Microbiology
Microorganisms have proven to be extremely useful in diverse industries from food industry to medicine to heavy metal mining. In agriculture, traditionally they have played important roles in nitrogen fixation and composting. More recently, the Bt genes of bacterial origin engineered in cotton have revolutionised cotton farming in the country. Due to their small genomes and ability to grow in niche areas, microorganisms evolve traits which can be utilized in agriculture. The Molecular Microbiology programme at Mahyco identifies useful microbial activities and corresponding genes from naturally occurring microbial communities with a view to utilising them in crop improvement for the benefit of Indian agriculture. The focus areas include applications in plant protection for controlling pest and diseases, in herbicide and other agrochemical biodegradation and plant growth promoting properties. Further, plant nutrition is an area of research with special emphasis on enhancing utilisation of nitrogen and phosphorus. Lignocellulosic bioethanol is another area in which Mahyco has an ongoing programme in collaboration with public institutions.
Abiotic Stress Tolerance
Abiotic stresses such as drought and salinity are among the most important problems that constrain agricultural productivity. Almost half of the world's arable area, supporting a significant proportion of the planet's population, experiences water resource limitations at some point. Breeding for abiotic stress tolerance has become a priority in many crops. Biotechnology applications offer a complementary approach where stress tolerant traits that are difficult to select for, or are not available for breeding in particular species, can be incorporated into key crops. Development of crop plants tolerant to various abiotic stresses will play a major role in
meeting the world's escalating food demands as well as moving towards more sustainable methods of agriculture. The abiotic stress tolerance program focuses on identification and evaluation of candidate genes which confer tolerance to drought and salinity, through strategic partnerships as well as internal development. Molecules involved in the regulation of stress response pathways and maintenance of osmotic balance in the cell are examples of candidates being investigated, with the goal of providing farmers with value–added crops that positively impact their livelihoods.
Molecular entomology
Research in the molecular entomology programme is aimed towards developing novel crop protection products, with a focus on piercing-sucking insect herbivores such as planthoppers, whiteflies, aphids, leafhoppers and thrips.Sap-sucking hemipterans as plant parasites and disease vectors cause widespread and often serious constraint to productivity in many food and commodity crops. Bioengineered crops with enhanced tolerance to sucking pests will help in improving yield potentials and provide a platform for sustainable agricultural system. Research projects are focused on identification of genes having insecticidal or anti-xenotic properties from a variety of sources, functional validation of insecticidal genes and deployment of novel crop protection genes with broad spectrum insect tolerance into target crops. An improved understanding of insect-plant interactions and insect population ecology will impact innovations in pest control strategies. Therefore, another aspect of research is to elucidate the feeding physiology and behaviour of sucking pests on host plants. Insect genetic diversity studies are also conducted using morphological examination and molecular markers aimed at assessing biotype distribution.
Entomology Resource Unit
Entomology Resource Unit(ERU) conducts basic and applied entomological research at Mahyco's research centres. ERU's insect rearing facility focuses on developing artificial diets and techniques for mass production of natural enemies, lepidopteran and hemipteran insect pests of paddy, cotton, brinjal, okra, and chilli. Resistance management programmes focus on developing, designing and continual assessment of strategies for sustainability of insect-resistant biotech crop technologies. Assay techniques are being developed, standardised and used for assessment of susceptibility of target insect pests to insecticidal proteins. One of the focus areas is to evaluate the non-target effects and analyse risk assessment in biotech crops. ERU works with breeding groups in screening of crop plants for resistance to target insect pests to develop insect resistant/tolerant lines and understand the mechanisms of resistance. The phenotypic evaluations of the lines are further used by breeders and biotechnologists to develop markers for insect resistance. Post-release monitoring activities evaluate the performance of released products and help develop better technologies for insect control. The programme also works on plant-insect-pathogen relationships to develop integrated technologies for pest management. |
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