Important publications

Heartiest congratulations to Dr. Jun-Jun Liu and Dr. Ekram for their recent publication.
Dhaka, 9th July, '08. GNOBB congratulate heartily Dr. Jun-Jun Liu and Dr. A K M Ekramoddoullah for their recent online publication in the Journal of "Tree Genetics and Genomics," entitled, "Development of Leucine-rich Polymorphism ... in Western white Pine" The investigation was carried out at the laboratory of the internationally recognized expert in proteomics, who is the last author of the article. Please click here to access the article

Heartiest Congratulations to Dr. Nasir Uddin for his Recent Publications.
Dhaka, 2nd July, '08. GNOBB feel proud to announce the the following five publications of Dr. M. Nasir Uddin (uddinmna@yahoo.com) in which he is the lead author in the first three. All are prestigious journals. GNOBB readers will also find abstracts of his oral presentations in one conference and two meetings in the attachment. For the title of abstracts please click here. _____________________________________________

Heartiest Congratulations to Dr. Kamal Chowdhury for his Oral Presentation at SIVP
Dhaka, July 1, 2008. Dr. Kamal Chowdhury attended the 2008 World Congress of the Society for In Vitro Biology (SIVB) held June 14-18 at Tucson, Arizona. The world renowned biologist, Professor MS Swaminathan was the key note speaker at the Congress, who spoke on, "Global agriculture at the Crossroad: Pathway to an Era of Biohappiness". Dr. Chowdhury made an oral presentation and also was the moderator of a session in which research papers on plant related topics were presented. The title of Dr. Chowdhury’s presentation was “transformation of tomato with anti-malarial genes with an aim to produce edible vaccines” in the session entitled, “Plant Vaccines, Pharmaceuticals, and Allergen production”. He talked about the importance, severity and the life cycle complexity of plasmodium - the malaria causing organism and the urgent need for developing affordable malaria vaccines to save millions of lives in the severely affected endemic areas of the world.

Heartiest congratulations to Dr. Aminul Islam et al. for their recent publication.

Dhaka, 24th June, '08. GNOBB congratulate heartily Dr. Aminul Islam and his associates for their recent publication in the Journal of Proteomics entitled "A proteomics approach to identify proteins differentially expressed in Douglas-fir seedlings infected by Phellinus sulphurascens." The investigation was carried out at the laboratory of the internationally recognized expert in proteomics, Dr. A K M Ekramoddoullah, who is the last author of the 55-page long article without the references. Such a contribution by Bangladeshi scientists has enhanced the country's image in the Biotech world.

The paper is based on a comparative proteomic study to explore the molecular mechanisms that underlie the defense response of Douglas-fir (DF, Pseudotsuga menziesii) to laminated root rot, a disease caused by Phellinus sulphurascens. 2-DE was conducted on proteins extracted from roots of laboratory-grown, young DF seedlings inoculated with P. sulphurascens. The results indicate that the major proteins differentially expressed in P. sulphurascens-infected DF seedlings include those in the following functional groups: disease/defense (27%), metabolism (16%), transcription factors (11%), signal transduction (10%), secondary metabolism (7%) and energy (4%). A number of additional proteins involved in cell structure (3%) and protein synthesis (3%) were also identified. By providing an initial database of candidate pathogenesis related proteins for the DF-Phellinus sulphurascens pathosystem the results of this study will enable future detailed investigation of gene expression and function. Pl click here to read the entire article. ___________________________________________________________

Dhaka, 18th June, '08. GNOBB congratulate heartily Dr. Md.Tofazzal Islam for being selected to make both an oral and poster presentation at APS Centennial Meeting 2008 to be held in July 26-30, 2008 in Minneapolis, USA. The organizers have also invited him to serve as a moderator in oral presentation session on “Fungal: Molecular, Cellular Biology” on Sunday, July 27 afternoon. GNOBB also feel proud and felicitate him for his following publications, which are now available online. GNOBB readers can click on the following respected links to access the articles :

The accurate and stable prediction of protein domain boundaries is an important avenue for the prediction of protein structure, function, evolution, and design. Recent research on protein domain boundary prediction has been mainly based on widely known machine learning techniques. In this paper, they have proposed a new machine learning based domain predictor namely, DomNet that can show a more accurate and stable predictive performance than the existing state-of-the-art models.The DomNet achieved the best performance with 71% accuracy for domain boundary identification in multidomains proteins. With the CASP7 benchmark dataset, it again demonstrated superior performance to contemporary domain boundary predictors such as DOMpro, DomPred, DomSSEA, DomCut, and DomainDiscovery. To access the full paper, please click here

Thioredoxin (Trx) proteins play important biological functions in cells by changing redox via thioldisulfied exchange. This system is especially widespread in plants. Through database search, they have identified 30 potential Trx protein-encoding genes (OsTrx) in rice (Oryza sativa L.). These findings suggest that the expansion of the Trx gene family in rice, in large part, occurred due to gene duplication. The identification of OsTrx genes showing differential expression in specific tissues among different genotypes or in response to different environmental cues could provide a new avenue for functional analyses in rice. To access the full paper, please click here

Congratulations to Dr. Nurul Islam for his recent publication
Heartiest Congratulations to Dr. Nurul Islam for their Latest Publications
Austin, April 6, '08. The chapter 14 of the book entitled, "RNAi: Design and Application (Barid Sailen (Ed.) written by GNOBB member, Dr. Nurul Islam at the Department of Botany, DU as a second coauthor is available on line. The title of the chapter is "Screening and Identification of Virus-Encoded RNA Silencing Suppressors." The other two authors are: Sumona Kariee (lead) and Sunil K. Mukherjee (last). This book is Vol. 442 of the series: Methods in Molecular Biology. You can download the chapter by clicking here. Earlier he published the following as a co-author.

Dharmendra K Singh, Sumona Karjee, Punjab S. Malik, Nurul Islam and Sunil K. Mukherjee (2007) DNA Replication and Pathogenecity of MYMIV. Communicating Current Research and Educational Tpics and Trends in Applied Microbiol. A. Méndez-Vilas (Ed. ) pp. 155-162.

Dr. Nurul Islam is now on a postdoctoral fellowship awarded to work in the Dept. of Cell and Mol. Biol., Uppsala University, Sweden on non-coding RNA, with a view to analyzing their unknown functional role in the life cycle of Mycobacterium sp.
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Heartiest Congratulations to Dr. A. Rahman & Team for their Latest Publications
Austin April 07,0'8. GNOBB offer their heartiest congratulations to the team of six scientists led by Dr. Abidur Rahman at the Cryobiosystem Research Center , Faculty of Agriculture, Iwate University for their latest publication in Plant Physiology. The details are as follows.

Takashi Okamoto Seiji Tsurumi, Kyohei Shibasaki, Yoshimi Obana, Hironori Takaji, Yutaka Oono, and Abidur Rahman Abidur Rahman (2008) Genetic Dissection of Hormonal Responses in the Roots of Arabidopsis Grown under Continuous Mechanical Impedance. Plant Physiology 146:1651-1662.

This has also been chosen by Peter V. Minorsky in his column to feature on the inside Plant Physiology (Cf. 1455-1456. It is an open access article.

GNOBB also congratulate Dr. Abid and Gloria Muday heartily for writing the book chapter No.3 captioned, “Auxin transport and the integration of Gravitropic Growth" for the book entitled, ”Plant Tropisms”, Simon Gilroy and Patrick Mason (Eds.) and published by Blackwell Publishing.
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Congratulations to Dr. AM Shohael for his recent Publications as a lead author

Dhaka Feb. 19, 08. GNOBB offer their heartiest congratulations to its member Dr. AM Shohael as a lead author of the following publications:
A.M. Shohael, H.N. Murthy, E.J. Hahn, H.L.Lee, K.Y. Paek (2008) Increased eleutheroside production in Eleutherococcus sessiliflorus embryogenic suspension cultures with methyl jasmonate treatment. Biochemical Engineering J. 38: 270-273.

A. M. Shohael, M. B. Ali, E.J. Hahn and K. Y. Paek (2007) Glutathione metabolism and antioxidant responses during Eleutherococcus senticosus somatic embryo development. Plant Cell Tissue & Organ Cult. 89:121-129.

A. M. Shohael, H.N.Murthy, E.J. Hahn, and K.Y. Paek (2007) Methyl jasmonate induced overproduction of eleutherosides in somatic embryos of Eleutherococcus senticous cultured in bioreactors. Electronic Journal of Biotechnology [online]. Vol. 10. No 4.
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Congratulations to Enamul Huq’s Gp. for their latest Publication in Pl. Physiol
Austin, Dec. 7, ’07. GNOBB offer their heartiest congratulations to Dr. Enamul Huq and his research Group for their latest publication in the December issue of plant Physiology.Click the title below to read the abstract. The details are as follows:
Huq Enamul, Luong Phi and Shen Hui (2007). The F-Box Protein MAX2 as a Positive Regulator of Photomorphogenesis in Arabidopsi. Plant Physiol. 145:1471-1485.
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Md. Motaher Hossain, Farjana Sultana, Mayumi Kubota, Hiroyuki Koyama and Mitsuro Hyakumachi (2007) The Plant Growth-Promoting Fungus Penicillium simplicissimum GP17-2 Induces Resistancein Arabidopsis thaliana by Activation of Multiple Defense Signals. Plant and Cell Physiol 48(12):1724-36.
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Heartiest Congratulations to Dr. Abdur Rahman Sikder
Austin, July 8, 2007. GNOBB convey their heartiest congratulations to Dr. Abdur Rahman Sikder for being awarded Ph.D. by the University of Sydney, Australia. His specialization is in the field of bioinformatics and the topic of his dissertation is, "Inferring Protein Domain Boundaries and Protein Structure from Amino Acid Sequences." From the University of Sydney, he has been relocated now as a Postdoctoral Scientist at Biotechnology Research Center, Michigan Technological University, MI, USA. Pl click the title to know more about Dr. Sikder.
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Congratulations to Drs. Hasanuzzaman & Fida Hasan for their Recent Publications
Austin Aug 12, '07. GNOBB feel proud to post the following details of recent publications of two Forum Members, Dr. M. Hasanuzzaman and Dr. Fida Hasan.

Hasanuzzaman M, Kutner R, Agha-Mohammadi S, Reiser, Inder Sehgal (2007) A doxycycline-inducible urokinase receptor (uPAR) upregulates uPAR activities including resistance to anoikis in human prostate cancer cell lines. Molecular Cancer 6:34.
Yoichi Kumada, Naoya Hashimoto, Fida Hasan, Masaaki Terashima, Kazuhiro
Nakanishi, Alois Jungbauer and Shigeo Katoh; 2007, Screening of ACE-inhibitory peptides from a random peptide-displayed phage library using ACE-coupled liposomes. J. Biotechnology 131: 144-149
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Achievements of 3 GNOBB members: paper presented at thelast ASPB Meeting

Austin July 29, '07 We always take pleasure in highlighting the new scientific findings of GNOBB members, whether these are research publications in peer-reviewed journals or oral/poster presentation in International Meetings. Here we report the achievements of three GNOBB members, Dr. Enamul Huq at MCDB, UT, Austin; Dr. Abidur Rahman at Iwate University, Cryobiosystem Research Center, Japan and Dr. Hemayet Ullah at the Dept. of Biology, Howard University, USA and their associates. The details of the papers they presented as the guide of the respective group at the last ASBP meeting (Plant Biology and Botany 2007 Joint Congress) July 7-11 in Chicago are given below. Clicking the title will enable you see the abstracts of the papers.

1. Moon Jennifer, Zhu Ling, Shen Hui, Huq Enamul. PIF1 directly regulates chlorophyll biosynthesis to optimize the greening process in Arabidopsis.

2. Ullah Hemayet, Uvetta Dozier, McLauchlin April, Kundu Nabanita, Fennel Herman. Arabidopsis Receptor for Activated C Kinase 1 (RACK1) scaffold proteins regulate diverse environmental stress signaling pathways.

3. Rahman Abidur, Bannigan Alex, Sulaman Waheeda, Pechter Priit, Blancaflor Elison, Baskin Tobias. Auxin, actin, and growth of the Arabidopsis thaliana primary root.
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Congratulations to Dr. Ekram and Associate for their Latest Publication
Austin June 18, 2007. GNOBB convey their heartiest congratulations to Liu J-J and Ekramoddoullah AKM for their latest publication in a peer reviewed journal shown below:

Liu J-J and Ekramoddoullah AKM (2007) The CC_NBS_LRR subfamily in Pinus monticola: targeted identification, gene exression, and genetic linkage with resistance to Cronartium ribicola. Phytopathology 97(6) : 728-736.
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Genetic Testing with a Printed Chip: Heartiest Congratulations to Minhaz
Dhaka, April 16, ’07. In a recent article (see below for the title), GNOBB member with his fellow researchers, Mr. Minhaz Uddin Ahmed as the lead author have reported that they have devised sensors that have the capability of diagnosing cancer predisposition. The sensors use inexpensive, rapid and hand-held systems for genetic analysis, thereby detecting and reducing threats of deadly human diseases. The details of the article are as follows. GNOBB heartily congratulate Mr Minhaz Uddin Ahmed and his six colleagues from Japan and Thailand for their spectacular discovery of this “cheap, rapid and portable point-of-care genetic test.”
Minhaz Uddin Ahmed, Koutarou Idegami, Miyuki Chikae, Kagan Kerman, Piyasak Chaumpluk, Shohei Yamamura and Eiichi Tamiya (2007) Electrochemical DNA biosensor using a disposable electrochemical printed (DEP) chip for the detection of SNPs from unpurified PCR amplicons. Analyst.
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Dhaka. April 26, '07. Faculty of 1000 Biology highlights and evaluates the most interesting papers published in biology, based on the recommendations of well over 2000 selected leading scientists. One of the evaluators, Professor Patrick Masson at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has adjudged the article by Abidur Rahman, Alex Bannigan, Waheeda Sulaman, Priit Pechter, Elison B. Blancaflor, Tobias I. Baskin as a must read article. It was published recently in the Plant Journal 50(3): 514-528 (2007) under the title "Auxin, actin and growth of the Arabidopsis thaliana primary root." GNOBB members join with Yahoo Group of Young BB in celebrating the occasion. Prof. Masson's remarks are reproduced below:

"This carefully written paper shows that auxins and auxin transport inhibitors can be divided into two functional classes based on their effects on cell division, elongation and actin organization in Arabidopsis roots. Carefully designed physiological and cell biological studies demonstrate that IAA, NAA and TIBA regulate the size of the elongation zone, whereas 2,4-D and NPA affect cell division and actin-dependent processes. These studies further show that elemental root elongation and localization of the PIN1 and PIN2 auxin efflux facilitators in the root elongation zone are mostly actin-independent. These conclusions are important because they contradict current "unifying" concepts on auxin action, and argue against a prominent role of actin in polar localization of PIN proteins within auxin-transporting cells." The news about this publication is already in GNOBB's homepage (see below).
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Heartiest Congratulations to Dr. Abidur Rahman for the online article in the Plant Journal
Dhaka 19th April. A GNOBB convey their heartiest congratulations to GNOBB member Dr. Abidur Rahman as the lead author and his associates for their following publication. It is also heartening to note that for the first time three Bangladeshi life scientists have been selected for oral presentation at the upcoming ASPB Annual meeting. The three scientists who are all GNOBB members are: Dr. Abidur Rahman, Dr. Hemayet Ullah and Dr. Enamul Huq. We feel very proud of their contribution to enhance the image of Bangladeshis in the comity of scientific world.

Abidur Rahman, Alex Bannigan, Waheeda Sulaman, Priit Pechter, Elison B. Blancaflor, Tobias I. Baskin (2007) Auxin, actin and growth of the Arabidopsis thaliana primary root. The Plant Journal (OnlineEarly Articles).
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Achievement by GNOBB Member: ASPB Honors Dr. H. Ullah
Austin March 12, '07.Heartiest congratulations to Dr. Hemayet Ullah for his lab being selected to present their research findings on the 9th at the upcoming ASPB Conference to be held in Chicago in July. The title of the talk is as follows:
Ullah, Hemayet (Uvetta, McLauchlin, Kundu, Herman) "Arabidopsis Receptor for Activated C Kinase 1 (RACK1) scaffold proteins regulate diverse environmental stress signaling pathways.
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Recent Publication of Dr. Mohammad Nurul Islam
Dharmendra Kumar Singh, Mohammad Nurul Islam, Nirupam Roy Choudhury, Sumona Karjee and Sunil Kumar Mukherjee (2007) The 32 kDa subunit of replication protein A (RPA) participates in the DNA replication of Mung bean yellow mosaic India virus (MYMIV) by interacting with the viral Rep protein. Nucleic Acids Research 35 (3):755-770.

Nirupam Roy Choudhury, Punjab Singh Malik, Dharmendra Kumar Singh, Mohammad Nurul Islam, Kosalai Kaliappan and Sunil Kumar Mukherjee (2006)The oligomeric Rep protein of Mungbean yellow mosaic India virus (MYMIV) is a likely replicative helicase. Nucleic Acids Research 34,(21): 6362-6377

Lee S-H, Ahsan N, Lee K-W, Kim D-H, Lee D-G, Kwak S-S, Kwon S-Y, Kim T-H, Lee B-H (2007) Simultaneous over expression of both CuZn superoxide dismutase and ascorbate peroxidase in transgenic fescue plants confers increased tolerance to a wide range of abiotic stresses. J Plant Physiol. (available online at www.sciencedirect.com)

Lee D–G, Ahsan N., Lee S-H, Kang KY, Lee JJ and Lee B-H (2007) An approach to identify cold-induced low-abundant proteins in rice leaf. C. R. Biologies. Elsevier Masson SAS. (available online at www.sciencedirect.com)
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Md Abdul Khaleque, XiaoZhe Wang, Mei Juan Zhau, Rong Zhong, Matthias Gaestel and Stuart K Calderwood (2006) Phosphorylation of HSF1 by MAPKAP Kinase 2 on serine 121, inhibits transcriptional activity and promotes HSP90 binding. J Biol Chem. 281(2):782-91.

Yutaka Enomoto, Ajit Bharti, Md Abdul Khaleque, Baizheng Song, Chunlei Liu, Vasso Apostolopoulos, Pei-xiang Xing, Stuart Calderwood and Jianlin Gong (2006) Enhanced immunogenicity of heat shock protein 70 peptide complexes from dendritic cell-tumor fusion cells. J Immunol. 177: 5946-5955. (2006).

Stuart K Calderwood, Md Abdul Khaleque, Douglas B. Sawyer and Daniel R. Ciocca (2006) Heat shock proteins in cancer: chaperones of tumoregenesis. Review. Trends Biochem. Sci. 31(3):164-72.
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Austin Oct. 10, ’06. The “Projonmo” section of “Prothom Alo” of October 9^th Edition features an interesting article on Epigenetics by Dr. Abed Chaudhury. In the introductory part, Dr. Chaudhury describes in a lucid and forceful Bengali, the milestones in the development of genetics from Darwin to Mendel, Neo-Darwinism followed by the conflict between supporters of Neo-Darwinism and Lysenko, one school advocating no influence of environment on genetic change and the other holding environment solely responsible for hereditary alterations. Then he gives the definition of epigenetics that how extremes of temperatures, salinity or insect damage can bring about hereditary changes by altering the position of methyl in the nitrogenous base or loosening the tightly wrapped chromatin around DNA thread or 20-25 base-pair long RNA which can silence a gene by adding a methyl group to DNA. He also describes the role of the DNA which was once considered ‘junk’. When an organism is exposed to extremes of environmental condition, the junk DNA make their appearance and can modify its genome. Dr. Chaudhury forecasts that the body of evidence that is accumulating fast in favor of epigenetics will hasten the downfall of Neo-Darwinism. At the end, he suggests creation of an Epigenetics Center in Bangladesh and gives a clarion call to Bangladeshi Biotechnologists to be partners with the rest of the world in this exciting field of research and utilize this innovative knowledge in the development of medical and agricultural science. Read the article by clicking the title.
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Congratulations to Drs. Hasanuzzaman & Fida Hasan for their Recent Publications
Austin Aug 12, '07. GNOBB feel proud to post the following details of recent publications of two Forum Members, Dr. M. Hasanuzzaman and Dr. Fida Hasan.

Hasanuzzaman M, Kutner R, Agha-Mohammadi S, Reiser, Inder Sehgal (2007) A doxycycline-inducible urokinase receptor (uPAR) upregulates uPAR activities including resistance to anoikis in human prostate cancer cell lines. Molecular Cancer 6:34
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Yoichi Kumada, Naoya Hashimoto, Fida Hasan, Masaaki Terashima, Kazuhiro, Nakanishi, Alois Jungbauer and Shigeo Katoh; 2007, Screening of ACE-inhibitory peptides from a random peptide-displayed phage library using ACE-coupled liposomes.J. Biotechnology 131: 144-149.

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Karim, M. M., Svitkin, Y., Kahvejian, A., DeCrescenzo, G., Costa-Mattioli M., and Sonenberg, N. (2006) A mechanism of translational repression by competition of Paip2 with eIF4G for poly(A) binding protein (PABP) binding. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 103(25): 9494-9499.

4. Jun-Jun Liu and Abul Ekramoddoullah (2006) The family of 10 plant pathogenesis-related proteins: in response to their structure and functions. Physiol. & Mol. Plant Pathology 68:3-13.

GNOBB offer warmest congratulations to Laisa Ahmed Lisa on her being awarded Ph.D. by Dhaka University. Click the title of her thesis, "Molecular Investigation on Salt Tolerance Of Coastal Rice Landraces at Reproductive and Seedling Stages" to read the summary. Her co-supervisors were Prof. Zeba I. Seraj at Dept. of Biochemistry and Mol. Biol., DU and Dr. A.R. Gomosta at BRRI.

5.. GNOBB member, Dr. Md. Abdur Razzaque will make a poster presentation at the "International Symposium Cardiofaciocutaneous Syndrome and Noonan Syndrome Scientific Meeting 2006". For details click here.

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Important publications of Bangladeshi biotechnologists including books written or edited by them will continue to be displayed in the website

Bangladeshi scientists in the field of biotechnology are requested to send information to GNOBB about any new articles they publish in peer reviewed journals, books they edit or any chapter they write for a book on biotechnology-related subjects so that these can be posted regularly in the website. We can only publish such information if they are communicated to us. It may be mentioned here that the two scientists who are now managing the website are plant biotechnologists and for them to cover all aspects of biotechnology is next to impossibility.

Instead of putting blame on us that we have not covered certain important biotech areas including publications in those fields, participants should bring to our notice any recent information about these items whether these are their own or of somebody whom they know. We also request all participants to bring to our notice any announcements regarding future conferences on special topics of interest.

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Austin, Aug. 05, '06. GNOBB is pleased to report of the following six publications. They deserve our heartiest congratulations for their valuable contributions. The first two in the current list is by Mr. Md. Shahidul Islam, the third one as a lead author is by Dr. Abidur Rahman, the next two in the list are coauthored by Dr. H. Ullah and the last is by Dr. AB Siddique as the lead author.

1. Alam, M. S. and Islam, M. S., 2005. Population Genetic Structure of Catla catla (Hamilton) Revealed by Microsatellite DNA Markers. Aquaculture, 246: 151-160, Elsevier, The Netherlands

2. Islam, M. S. and Alam, M. S., 2004. Randomly amplified polymorphic DNA analysis of four different populations of the Indian major carp, Labeo rohita ( Hamilton ). Journal of Applied Ichthyology , 20: 407-412, Blackwell Pub., Germany.

3. Abidur Rahman, Akari Nakasone, Tory Chhun, Chiharu Ooura, Kamal Kanti Biswas, Hirofumi Uchimiya, Seiji Tsurumi, Tobias I. Baskin, Atsushi Tanaka, Yutaka Oono. (2006) A small acidic protein 1 (SMAP1) mediates responses of the Arabidopsis root to the synthetic auxin 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid. The Plant Journal on line ahead of publication.

4. Chen JG, Ullah H, Temple B, Liang J, Guo J, Alonso JM, Ecker JR, Jones AM (2006) RACK1 mediates multiple hormone responsiveness and developmental processes in Arabidopsis. J Exp Bot. Jul 7; [Epub ahead of print]
5. Storey NM, Gentile S, Ullah H, Russo A, Muessel M, Erxleben C, Armstrong DL. (2006) Rapid signaling at the plasma membrane by a nuclear receptor for thyroid hormone. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U S A. 103(13):5197-201.

6. Siddique AB, Lebron Jose A. (2006) State-of-the-Art Immunological Methods used during the Non-clinical safety assessment of Vaccines. American Pharmaceutical Rev. 9 (4), 40-49.
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Genetic analysis of seed coat development in Arabidopsis” – A Review article Authored by George Haughn and Abed Chaudhury
Austin Sept 19. A review article entitled, “Genetic analysis of seed coat development in Arabidopsis” is due to be published in the October issue (vol. 10) of Trends in Plant Science. The article has been authored by George Haughn at the Univ. of British Columbia and the Forum member Dr. Abed Chaudhury at CSIRO, Australia and now available online. The review describes the structure of the Arabidopsis seed coat and the contributions that genetic analysis has made in understanding its development and function. The Arabidopsis seed coat develops from the ovule integument in response to fertilization. Three of the five cell layers of the ovule integuments differentiate into distinct cell types; a mucilage containing epidermal cell layer, a sub-epidermal palisade layer and a tannin containing endothelium. By seed coat maturity, all seed coat cells have undergone programmed cell death. Genetic analysis suggests that a signal from the multinucleate endosperm initiates differentiation of the seed coat cell types. Endosperm and seed coat development proceed independently of one another in all aspects except growth. A number of genes encoding transcription factors that regulate the differentiation of both the mucilage cells and endothelium have been identified. Targets of these transcription factors that have been identified include enzymes for the biosynthesis and secretion of both tannins and pectinaceous mucilage. At least one gene needed for programmed death of the two undifferentiated cell layers has also been identified. The analysis seed coat mutant lacking tannins or mucilage has generated evidence implicating these products as having roles in seed dormancy, germination and storage longevity. In the future it should be possible to bioengineer seeds of different crops with modified traits suitable for planting under varied climatic conditions.
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Gene interrupting Sugar Flow in Rice Pollen during Cold Spells
Austin 12 Sept. The news on the above title is quoted from ScienceAlert.com.au based on May 30 press release. Due to cold spells rice production suffers a loss of 5-10% annually in Australia which in terms of monetary loss amounts to $44 millions. Every four years this loss due to cold mounts up to 40%. In standard varieties, cold spells prevent the transport of sugar to the pollen contributing to its abortion. Headed by Rudy Dolferus rice researchers at CSIRO, Canberra discovered that the transport of sugar to the pollen is inhibited by a specific hormone. They identified the gene responsible for the production of this specific hormone. Their data revealed that this hormone beyond a certain level turns off sugar transport genes, vitally important for the formation of pollen. In other words, while the specific hormone increases in cold susceptible varieties during cold spells turning off the sugar transport genes, the hormonal level remains unchanged in cold tolerant varieties facilitating the sugar to reach floral primordial regions for normal pollen development. In the near future it may be possible to down-regulate the production of this hormone by modifying the gene that produces it.
Bangladesh faces this problem while growing jute in the northern part of the country. Information about this gene will help jute breeders design experiments for evolving varieties suitable for planting in such areas that are subject to severe cold winters in certain years.
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Simultaneous Incorporation of two Bt genes in indica basmati rice
Austin Sep 11. Under the leadership of Sheikh Riazuddin at the University of Punjab, Lahore, Six Punjab University molecular biologists have successfully incorporated two Bt genes, cry1Ac and cry2A at the same time in indica basmati rice (B-370) followed by their equally impressive performance in the field. The transgenic line showed 100% and 98% resistance against YSB at vegetative and flowering stages, respectively as compared to the control. The experimental results including those of field trial are now available online in the journal Crop Protection vol. 24 and will be published in hard print in October 2005 issue of the same journal at page 870 through 879.
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Are GM Crops more dangerous than planting mutanized varieties or growing exotic horticulture plants or population of wide crosses?
In his book entitled, “Genetically Modified Planet”, C. Neal Stewart, Jr., the Ratcliff Chair of Excellence in Plant Molecular Genetics at the University of Tennessee, advocates the use of GM crops saying that in the past 15 years or so, such genetically altered crops have not done any harm compared to many other practices such as those generated by plant breeders through irradiation or use of chemicals or wide interspecific or intergeneric crosses or by homeowners growing exotic plants or Golf Clubs maintaining monoculture turf grasses over a considerable tracts of land. The book has been published by Oxford University Press, New York. Please read the comments by clicking here.
An extremely well-written book but there has been one omission in it. It did not describe an important tool, namely, the usefulness of using chloroplasts to bioengineer a plant with genes of interest. Professor Henry Daniell at the Central Florida University, Orlando has shown that genes of interest across the species barrier can be inserted via chloroplast DNA to produce GM crops. Such transgenics would not produce viable pollen, thus keeping the environment safe as no superweed is likely to be generated without the pollen from GM crops. Such a strategy would eventually silence the criticism by activists, who vehemently oppose introduction of any kinds of GM crops.

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Heartiest Congratulations to Dr. Mottaleb et al. for their recent publication

Dhaka 24^th July, 2008. We congratulate Dr.Mottaleb heartily and his associates for their recent publication in the J. Environment Science.

M. A. Mottaleb (2008) Biological transformation, kinetics and dose-response assessments of bound musk ketone hemoglobin adducts in rainbow trout as biomarkers of environmental exposure. J. Environ. Sci 20 (7), 878-884.

The research was designed to analyze the exposure of pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs) in aquatic organisms such as fish. The biotransformation, dose-response etc. assessments were made. It has been proved that biotransformation of nitro musk (a fragrance ingredient) could be found in fish blood through hemoglobin adducts and could be used as biomarker of exposure. In Bangladesh, pharmaceutical and other industrial companies are polluting water environment through discharging their wastes continuously; as a result aquatic organisms are at risk in their own environment. Since human consumes fish regularly through diet, consequently human and other fish-eating animals are continuously facing health hazard. Because PPCPs form metabolites through enzymatic nitro-reduction or breakdown in living beings.
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