The Department of Agricultural Biotechnology was established in 1989 at Assam Agricultural University, the oldest Agricultural University in the North East of India. Supported by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Govt of India, the department offers M.Sc. and Ph.D. degree programmes in \'Molecular Biology and Biotechnology\' to students from both Agricultural and non-Agricultural sciences backgrounds. Recently, it has started a new B.Tech.-M.Tech. (integrated) degree programme in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology. The department has a strength of 12 major faculty members majority of whom are trained abroad in different areas of Biotechnology. It has state-of-the-art infrastructure and classroom facilities, and the laboratories are well equipped with advanced instruments such as Real-Time PCR, ABI capillary-sequencer, HPLC, Confocal Microscope etc.
The department carries out cutting-edge research in the areas of Genetic Engineering, Genome Editing, Microbial Biotechnology, Molecular Breeding, Functional Genomics, Bioinformatics, etc. Several competitive research grants from national agencies like DBT, ICAR, DST, UGC, etc. and international agencies such as Kirkhouse Trust, UK, have been awarded to the department. In addition, several international collaborative research projects under Indo-Swiss, Indo-Australia, Indo-US, Erasmus+ etc. have either been completed or are presently ongoing. A major research achievement of the department has been the generation of insect-resistant transgenic chickpea lines which have been transferred to the public (IIPR, Kanpur, ICRISAT, Patancheru, UAS, Dharwad, PAU, Ludhiana) and private (Sungro Seeds) organizations for varietal development. In recognition to its exemplary teaching and research achievements, the department was awarded a \'Centre of Excellence in Agricultural Biotechnology\' status in 2011.
Microbial secondary metabolites are of prime importance in pharmaceutical industries due to their promising antimicrobial and cytotoxic activity. Starting from the discovery of penicillin, a number of antibiotics have gained importance in the revolutionary progress of clinical biology. Most of these natural antibiotic compounds have been obtained from fungi and actinobacteria (Grasso et al., 2016).
Serratia marcescens, a Gram-negative motile bacterium belonging to the family Enterobacteriaceae is known to produce important enzymes like DNase, lipase, gelatinase, chitinase, protease, etc. (Giri et al., 2004). Strains of S. marcescens have been reported to produce a red colourpigment prodigiosin, an alkaloid that contains three pyrrole rings in their chemical structure. Prodigiosin has been shown to have antimicrobial (Lapenda et al., 2015), insecticidal (Wang et al., 2012), larvicidal (Patil et al., 2011), immunosuppressive (Han et al., 1998) and anticancer (Montaner et al., 2000) properties. In our recent study, an endofungal isolate of S. marcescens was characterized from Mucor irregularis. We have purified and characterized the prodigiosin produced by S. marcescens. The study demonstrated that prodigiosin is capable to form pores on the fungal cell membrane (Hazarika et al., 2020). We have also characterized the antimicrobial activity of red pigment against different Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. Prodigiosin is hydrophobic in nature and this limits its application, resulting in poor absorption and lowbioavailability (Tran et al., 2019). Bioavailability ofprodigiosin can be enhanced by employing nanoformulationto overcome the limitations caused by theintrinsic hydrophobicity prodigiosin. Technique forprodigiosin encapsulation was developed and anticancer effectwas investigated(Zhao et al., 2019).
In general, more that 90% of the applied pesticide is lost in the environment. This increases the cost of production and also causes contamination of the environment. Therefore, we are proposing the project work, whereby we will use Prodigiosin and encapsulate it for easy dispersal and to increase its stability.
OBJECTIVES
I. Development of prodigiosin encapsulated nanoparticles for disease management.
II. In vitro and In vivo evaluation of the efficacy of prodigiosin encapsulated nanoparticles on fusarium wilt of tomato.
III. Expression profile of defence related genes upon nanoparticle application.
1. Dr. Madhumita Barooah, Professor, Department of Agricultiral Biotechnology, AAU, Jorhat was awarded Rajendra Prasad Excellence Award-2020-Society of tropical Agriculture
2. Ruby Gupta- awarded ABSTC Student Scholarship, to attend the 15th ISBR Symposium that will take place in Tarragona, Spain from 1-4 April 2019. This scholarship recognizes her role as an emerging scientist in biotechnology, as evidenced by the abstract submitted by her and its selection by the Scholarship Committee for this prestigious award.
3. Ms. Suprava Priyadarshini Nayak, MSc student has been selected for the Khorana Fellowship 2019 to visit USA for a period of 4 months
4. Dr Indrani Kakati-Got selected for postdoctoral appointment to the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Research Participation Program. Dr. Bryan Bailey will serve as her mentor at the Sustainable Perennial Crops Laboratory (SPCL) located at Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
5. Mr. Alokesh Ghosh-Begged the best poster (1st position) award in the technical session 3 at the international conference ICCBSA- 2018.
6. Dr. Sushil Kumar Singh- Awarded First poster prize in International conference on CLIMATE CHANGE, BIODIVERSITY AND SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE (ICCBS-2018) held on December 13th to 16th, 2018 at Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat -785013.
7. Ms Sanjukta Singha- Got 2nd Best Oral Presentation for her work -Cloning and characterization of gene encoding eIF4E from Bhut jolokia (Capsicum chinense Jaqc.), at International Conference on Climate Change, Biodiversity and Sustainable Agriculture (ICCCBSA) 13th Dec to 16th Dec, 2018.
8. Four students from department of Agricultural Biotechnology have bagged the prestigious BRAVE fellowship under the Erasmus Mundus programme 2016-17.
Sl. No
Name of Student
University
1
Geetimollika Hazarika
Agricultural University of Athens, Hellas (Greece)
2
Ananya Baruah
3
Ricky Raj Paswan
UPM: Universidad Polytecnica de Madrid (Spain)
4
Mausumi Hazarika
UNIMI: University of Milan (Italy)
9. Ms Sushmita Rajkhowa, M.Sc. student has been selected for a 2 and half month training at Washington State University, Pullman under the Khurana Programme-2016.
10. Ms Trisnamoni Gautom, JRF, department of Agricultural Biotechnology got selected for Newton-Bhabha PhD placements programme 2016-17, funded by Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and British Council, and will do part of her PhD research work at The University of Manchester, Manchester.
11. Ms. Ranju Chutia (2014) begged BRAVE fellowship under the Erasmus Mundus programme to pursue PhD at Martin-Luther-University, Germany
12. Ms. Manaswita Baruah (2014) begged BRAVE fellowship under the Erasmus Mundus programme to pursue PhD at Martin-Luther-University, Germany
13. Ms. Assma Parveen (2013) INSPIRE Fellow, PhD Scholar, AAU, Jorhat.
14. Dr. M K Modi, Prof & Head, Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, AAU, Jorhat- selected for DBT Overseas Fellowship for NE-2012.
15. B K Sarmah, Prof, Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, AAU, Jorhat- Top reviewer of Plant Science, 2012.
16. B K Sarmah, Prof, Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, AAU, Jorhat- Editorial Board member selected for “Indian Journal of Genetic and Plant Breeding.2012
17. Dr. Akhil Ranjan Baruah, Assistant Professor, Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, AAU, Jorhat- selected for DBT Overseas Fellowship for NE-2012
18. Dr. Robin C Boro, Assistant Professor, Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, AAU, Jorhat-selected for Raman Fellowships for Post-Doctoral Research for Indian Scholars in United States for the year 2013-14, awarded by UGC.
19. Dr Sumita Acharjee, Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, AAU, Jorhat- selected for NER Overseas Associateship 2013 – 2014
20. Dr. (Ms.) Madhumita Barooah, Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, AAU, Jorhat- selected for NER Overseas Associateship 2013 – 2014
21. Dr Sumita Acharjee, Assistant Professor Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, AAU, Jorhat selected for Norman E. Borlaug International Agricultural Science and Technology Fellowship, USDA.2014 – 2015
22. Dr. Priyadarshini Bhorali, Assistant Professor, Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, AAU, has bagged the ‘Norman E. Borlaug International Agricultural Science and Technology Fellowship (Borlaug Fellowship) 2016.
1. A WORKSHOP ON NEXT GENERATION SEQUENCING DATA ANALYSIS 13th-14th June 2016, organized by Distributed Information Centre (DIC) Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, AAU, Jorhat, Assam, India, Sponsored by Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India, New Delhi.
2. Department of Agril. Biotechnology, AAU, Jorhat, conducted ICAR-Short Course on “Molecular approaches for plant disease diagnostics and resistance mechanism” from 3rd to 12th November, 2016.
3. Hands on Training in Molecular Modeling & Molecular Dynamics Simulation, March 27-29, 2017 organized by Distributed Information Centre (DIC) Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, AAU, Jorhat, Assam, India, Sponsored by Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India, New Delhi.
4. Department of Agril. Biotechnology, AAU, Jorhat, conducted National Webinar on “e-Education in Agricultural Sciences in the age of Social Distancing: Opportunities, Challenges and Strategies” on June 25, 2020
5. Department of Agril. Biotechnology, AAU, Jorhat, conducted National Webinar on “Genome Editing in Agriculture: Current status and Prospects” on Mar 25, 2021.
6. Department of Agril. Biotechnology, AAU, Jorhat, in collaboration with DBT-NECAB, AAU, Jorhat, conducted National Webinar on “Microbial Biotechnology in Agriculture and Industry” from April 26 to May 01, 2021.
1. Dr. Bidyut Kumar Sarmah, Director, DBT-AAU Centre, and Professor, department of agricultural biotechnology, AAU, has been awarded the prestigious Norman Borlaug Chair by the Indian Council for Agricultural Research, New Delhi. Professor Sarmah is the first agricultural scientist from the Northeast to have been selected for this honour. Professor Sarmah will hold the chair as a national professor for a period of five years and will receive a grant of Rs 2.5 crore for conducting research on development of cisgenic chickpea resistant to pod borers. The Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) chickpea, developed by AAU, is one of the two genetically modified (GM) crops that was recommended for deregulation at a meeting, held to discuss deregulation of GM crops in India, in New Delhi on February 23, 2017.
2. Dr Madhumita Barooah and her research group standardized the traditional Rice Based Alcoholic Beverage (RAB) brewing procedure. The technology has been transferred to few agri entrepreneurs for commercialization and the product is expected to hit the market soon.
3. Dr. Madhumita Barooah- Bagged the prestigious grant for organizing an India-UKIERI joint workshop entitled “Water for All: Addressing Issues Surrounding Water Quality, Quantity and Waste Water Treatment in India” under the collaboration between Department of Science & Technology, Govt. of India and UK India Education & Research Initiative (UKIERI). UK Coordinator: Virginia Panizzo Clive Granger Building, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham, NG27 2RD