December 5, 2016. The eighth International Plant Tissue Culture and Biotechnology Conference commenced as per program.The details of the conference are given below:

The theme of the Conference was: Biotechnology for Innovative Agriculture and Food Security. Guests and participants took their seats at 10:00. The conference began with the recitation from the Holy Books. The  address of welcome and introduction of the foreign guests were accorded by Professor Dr. Sheikh Shamimul Alam, Secretary, Organizing Committee & General Secretary, BAPTC&B. This was followed by addresses by the Special Guests Professor Dr. K. M. Nasiruddin, Vice Chancellor, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Science & Technology University, Gopalganj,  Professor Dr. Kamal Uddin Ahamed, Vice Chancellor, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka and   the Chief Patron: Professor A A M S Arefin Siddique, Vice Chancellor, University of Dhaka.  The Chief Guest,  Architect Yeafesh Osman, Honorable Minister, Ministry of Science and Technology, GoB began his talk with a nice poem composed by him. Thereafter, Professor Dr. M. Mozammel Haque, the President, BAPTC&B spoke.  The  Plenary lecture was delivered by Professor Dr. Narendra Tuteja, Amity University, Delhi, India. The title of his talk was: Crop improvement under stress for food security through innovative microbial biotechnology approach. In his introductory remarks the Professor said, “the Food security is generally defined as the availability of food and its access to it. But food security could be in danger due to the negative impact of different stresses  which lead to low production. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop stress-tolerant crops with no yield loss for the future food security. One of the innovative approach for crop improvement under stress conditions, the Professor continued  is understanding of the beneficial fungal-plant interactions. Use of beneficial fungus (root endophyte Piriformospora indica) through non-transgenic and transgenic approaches could be one of the best innovative approaches for crop improvements. Through non-transgenic approach P. indica has been found to provide a strong growth-promoting activity during its symbiosis with a broad spectrum of plants including mustard, pea, tobacco, tomato, rice, lepidium and the medicinal plant Coleus forskohlii. Despite its positive impact on the host, little is known about the P. indica genes that may be involved in stress tolerance. However, for transgenic approach to improve the crop under stress conditions, the first high salinity-tolerant genes from P. indica need to be cloned. Recently we have cloned several salinity-tolerant genes from P. indica fungus by functional screening, based on random over-expression of a P. indica cDNA library in Escherichia coli grown on a medium supplemented with 0.6 M NaCl. Of these one of the salinity tolerant genes derived  from P. indica (cyclophilin; PiCypA) has been functionally validated for its role in salinity tolerance in bacteria and plants. This gene product catalyzes the inter-conversion of peptidyl prolyl imide bonds in peptide and protein substrates and functions as molecular chaperones. This is also known to be involved in pre-mRNA splicing; however, their RNA-binding activity has not been well described. We found that this protein contains a unique property of RNA binding. It also provides high salinity tolerance in E. coli. The authors have also shown that the transgenic tobacco plants over-expressing fungal PiCypA provide high salinity tolerance and exhibit normal growth under salinity stress conditions. Overall, we demonstrated for the first time a direct evidence of countering salinity stress tolerance in plants by genetic modification using a fungal gene.

Another notable feature of the inauguration ceremony was to honor Professor Ahmad Shamsul Islam, retired Profess of Botany, DU  with citation and a crest for his relentless , meritorious and selfless service as the Chief Editor of the Journal of Plant Tissue Culture & Biotechnology for 26 years.