Course on plant tissue culture techniques begins

Islamabad: Two-day online certificate course on ‘Basic Plant Tissue Culture Techniques’ organized by COMSTECH in collaboration with International Centre for Chemical and Biological Sciences (ICCBS), University of Karachi, and Pakistan Biotechnology Information Centre (PABIC Karachi - Chapter), was inaugurated by Prof. Dr. M. Iqbal Choudhary, Coordinator General, COMSTECH.

In his inaugural address Dr. Choudhary said that the field of plant tissue culture is extremely important with a broad range of applications. He said that this technology is although over 100 years old but in the last 30 years plant tissue culture has played an extremely important role in various fields of agriculture.

He said that this technology helps in improving crop varieties, and to produce disease free plants. In fact, fundamental techniques/technologies used in plant tissue culture form the basis of many other disciplines including molecular biology, and regenerative medicine, he highlighted.

The founder of the modern agricultural biotechnology in Iran, Prof. Dr. Behzad Ghareyazie will train the participants of this course along with the Egyptian geneticist, Prof. Dr. Naagla Abdalla, head department of genetics, Cairo University, Cairo, and Pakistani agriculturalist, Prof. Dr. Saifullah Khan, department of agriculture and agribusiness management, University of Karachi, Pakistan. Over 200 researchers in the field of plant sciences are attending the training course from 20 countries online. The course will conclude on February 27.