Biomedical subjects

Kiran Kumar Sharma

Publications and source records attributed to Kiran Kumar Sharma.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.).

Chickpea is one of the most important leguminous, cool-season, food crops, cultivated prevalently in the Asian Pacific region. In spite of its nutritional importance, its area of cultivation has been low, with virtually no increase. Conventional breeding has resulted in several important improvements in this crop, and recent advances in biotechnology such as plant tissue culture and genetic transformation can significantly contribute to better sustainability of this important food crop. Here, we describe an efficient Agrobacterium-mediated transformation protocol for chickpea using axillary meristem explants, which results in a high frequency of genetic transformation (70%) and recovery of valuable transgenic plants. The protocol is significant owing to its high reproducibility and recovery of the transgenics in a relatively short period (90-100 days).

Agrobacterium tumefaciens↗

PubMed2006

Peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.).

Arachis hypogea (peanut, groundnut), an annual oil seed belonging to the Leguminosae family and the Papillionacea subfamily, is a legume native to South America but now grown in diverse environments in six continents between latitudes 40 degrees N and 40 degrees S. Arachis hypogea can grow in a wide range of climatic conditions. The low yields of this crop are mainly attributed to unreliable rainfall patterns with frequent droughts, lack of high-yielding adapted cultivars, damage by diseases and pests, poor agronomic practices, and limited use of inputs. Genetic engineering approaches have been shown to be comparatively fast, leading to better isolation and cloning of desired traits for combating the various biotic and abiotic stresses. This chapter describes an Agrobacterium-mediated transformation protocol in peanut using the cotyledon system. The system described here is potentially applicable to a vast range of genotypes with a high transformation frequency of >70% based on the preliminary molecular data, indicating the production of a large number of independently transformed transgenic plants. The method reported here provides opportunities for crop improvement of this important legume crop via genetic transformation.

Adaptation, Physiological↗

PubMed2006

Pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan L. Millsp.).

Pigeonpea [Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp.], also known as redgram, is one of the major grain legume (pulses) crops grown in the semiarid tropics (SAT) extending between 30 degrees N and 30 degrees S; it is the second most important food legume of India. It is cultivated in about 50 countries of Asia, Africa, and the Americas for a variety of uses (food, fodder, fuel wood, rearing lac insects, hedges, wind breaks, soil conservation, green manure, roofing, and so on). The constraints of enhancing its productivity include the damage caused by various fungi, bacteria, viruses, and insect pests. Conventional plant breeding methods have not been successful for the improvement of pigeonpea because of genetic variation and incompatibility among the wild varieties. Genetic engineering technology can therefore be used as an additional tool for the introduction of agronomically useful traits into established varieties. The development of plant transformation techniques has been a major breakthrough in overcoming constraints to achieve precision in genetic manipulation. The development of efficient plant regeneration protocols is a prerequisite for recombinant technology to carry out genetic transformation. This chapter describes an Agrobacterium-mediated transformation protocol for pigeonpea, a simple, efficient, and reproducible method that is applicable across diverse genotypes of pigeonpea.

Agrobacterium tumefaciens↗