Nobel Prize

Six Nobel prizes are awarded each year in the areas of:

• Peace
• Chemistry
• Physics
• Medicine
• Literature
• Economics

The prizes are named after Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, who created the prizes in his will. He donated a good portion of his estate to fund the prizes, decided who would judge the winners of each award and also named the five prize categories (economics was added during the 1960s).
The Nobel Prizes are administered by the Nobel Foundation and are awarded in the fall after a rigorous selection process. The list of winners in the different categories (especially physics and chemistry) is like a Hall of Fame. For example, in physics the winners include Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, Robert Millikan, Louis-Victor De Broglie, Werner Heisenberg and so on. It's a pretty prestigious list!
Today each prize is valued at over $1,000,000. The reason it is such a "big deal" is because of the size of the award and the fact that the award has been given since 1901-- long enough that everyone has heard about it.

Winners in Medicine:
 2009
The prize was awarded jointly to:
ELIZABETH H. BLACKBURN, CAROL W. GREIDER, and JACK W. SZOSTAK for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase.

2008 The prize was divided equally, one half to:
HARALD ZUR HAUSEN for his discovery of human papilloma viruses causing cervical cancer
and the other half jointly to:
FRANCOISE BARRE SINOUSSI, and LUC MONTAGNIER for their discovery of human immunodeficiency virus

2007 The prize was awarded jointly to:
MARIO R. CAPECCHI, SIR MARTIN J. EVANS, and OLIVER SMITHIES for their discoveries of principles for introducing specific gene modifications in mice by the use of embryonic stem cells

2006 The prize was awarded jointly to:
ANDREW Z. FIRE, and CRAIG C. MELLO for their discovery of RNA interference - gene silencing by double-stranded RNA

2005 The prize was awarded jointly to:
BARRY J. MARSHALL, and J. ROBIN WARREN for their discovery of the bacterium Helicobacter pylori and its role in gastritis and peptic ulcer disease.

5 Most Cloned Animals

I­f you didn't know any better, you might think that Star, Snuppy, CC and ANDi were just a few unfortunately named animals. You'd only be half right. These creative monikers actually belong to a pig, a dog, a cat and a monkey that were among the first clones of their species.

Animal 1: Cloned Pets

In 2005, scientists in South Korea announced they had produced the first dog clone -- an Afghan hound named Snuppy. Several years earlier, in late 2001, the world's first cloned kitten, CC (short for Copycat), entered the world. Since then, at least 40 dogs and an unknown number of cats have been replicated [source: Keim].
In July 2008, BioArts International auctioned off four dog cloning spots to the highest bidders. The program, aptly titled "Best Friends Again," also offered up one, all-expenses-paid spot for a lucky winner in its Golden Clone Giveaway contest. That spot has since been won by a heroic Sept. 11 rescue dog, dubbed the world's most "clone-worthy" dog [source: BioArts International].

Hund­reds of people ­pay upward of $1,000 a year to preserve tissue from their cat or dog for future cloning [source: Shiels]. Despite the high demand for commercially cloned pets, BioArts states on its Web site that its Best Friends Again program is a limited service that may or may not be continued.
Surely someone will step up to the plate, which is why pets merit a spot on this list. With thousands of potential customers having expressed interest in duplicating their beloved pets, it's only a matter of time before the technology advances enough to support a commercial venture.
Indeed, the Seoul-based company RNL Bio recently opened its doors for business and after the birth of five cloned puppies in August 2008, announced itself as the "first successful commercial canine cloning service." The team has already cloned more than 20 dogs and has plans to clone about 300 per year [source: CNN]. So if you have $150,000 to spare and a beloved pug to duplicate, you may want to take a trip to South Korea.

Animal 2: Cloned Goats and Sheep (It's a Tie)

For most people, it's probably more exciting to imagine clones of Fido running around the house than livestock clones bumbling around the farm. But to scientists and breeders, cloned goats and sheep are simply captivating and hold a lot of promise.
Sheep, for instance, can be genetically engineered to produce drugs that are useful in treating human diseases. One example is Polly, a cloned lamb designed to produce milk containing a protein that's deficient in hemophiliacs. Theoretically, sheep like Polly could be mass-produced to churn out medicinal drugs [source: Pecorino].

Ode to Dolly Dolly captured our hearts and minds with her monumental birth in 1996. It could be said that this endearing sheep kicked off the mass interest in cloning. Dolly lived out her years at the Roslin Institute in Scotland and was the mother of six lambs born the old-fashioned way. Sadly, Dolly was euthanized on Valentine's Day 2003 due to crippling arthritis and lung cancer. She was only 6 years old.

­Fuzzy sheep are yet another benefit of cloning. Breeders have manually tinkered with their herds for years to get extra-woolly critters, and cloning enables them to easily perpetuate the genetics of those individuals that provide them with the most wool, thus creating a more bountiful product.
Likewise, some goats are cloned to produce herds that yield higher quality milk and meat products. Goat cloning got an additional boost by being one of the three species OK'd by the FDA in January 2008 for human consumption. There's no question breeders will take advantage of that decision to maximize the desirable traits of their Billys.

Animal 3: Cloned Pigs

If all pigs were as good at spelling as Wilbur, you might be a li­ttle more stoked about this particular selection. But while pigs can't spell -- it was Charlotte's doing, after all -- they do make some pretty mean bacon. If meat isn't your thing, cloned pigs are also sought after because of the suitability of their organs for human transplantation.
Transferring cells, tissues or organs from one species to another is known as xenotransplantation and is viewed as a potential solution to the shortage of organs and cells for lifesaving transplants. By tweaking the genetic makeup of pigs, a biopharmaceutical company named PPL Therapeutics has fine-tuned the animals' DNA so some of their organs and cells can be used successfully in people. These genetically altered pigs can be cloned to mass-generate things like insulin-producing cells for the treatment of type 1 diabetes and organs like hearts and kidneys [source: PPL Therapeutics, Inc.].
According to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), which recently conducted a study on the safety of products obtained from cloned animals and their offspring for consumption, there are already at least 500 cloned pigs in existence worldwide [source: EFSA]. And like goats, porcine foodstuffs also got the green light from the FDA, so it's likely that the number of pigs being cloned will increase. As advancements continue to be made with the treatment of human disease and xenotransplantation, pigs should continue to stake out a pretty prominent spot on the list of most cloned animals.

CSIR JRF June '10 Questions

1.(a) How to find out the surface area of leaf without using any instrument?
(b) A person went for a field trip to mountain and took some photographs of an earthworm. After return how would he find the actual length of the earthworm by the help of the photos he has taken?

 

2. Name the substrates and enzymes in C2 cycle in mitochondria and peroxysome.

 

3.(a) What is e value and score with reference to BLAST?
(b) What are the methods to find out protein motifs. What are the various symbols used for representation.

4. What mutation according to ABC model would lead to the following result?
Sepal, Sepal, Sepal, Sepal

 

5. Describe how nitrogen is fixed?

 

6. What do you mean by C sink ? and what role does it play in global warming?

 

7. Write 2 importance of TFIIH and carboxy terminal domain of RNA polymerase.

 

8. Give an account of aluminium toxicity in plants?

 

9. What are DNA vaccines?

 

10. What do you mean by somatic gene therapy?

 

11.How was it known before sequencing that the E.coli DNA is circular?

 

12. How will you prove that the neuron conduction across membrane occurs by chemicals?

 

13. What is the difference between corpus luteum and corpus albicans?

some more:

 

Product of sucrose is?
Describe the structural and functional difference between leucoplast, chromoplast and ----?

Which is strait chain sugar.?

what parameter would you use to find out the relation between two variables?

what do you mean by non parametric statistics? when do you use non parametric statistics. give eg

40 fish were exposed to chem icals A and B. of them, 28 fish moved towards chemical A and rest towards B. set up a test to assess this, and state the null hypothesis. what should be the conclusion? chi square value for df=1 given

Differentiate between correlation and regression. Give an eg where correlation has no regression

Write the logistic growth curve equation for species A and B and modify them when they under prey predator relationship

In wild dogs, which display lek behaviour, what evolutionary force decide the males to engage in hunting and caring for the pups?

what is tetanization? what is rigor mortis?

what are type I and type II diabetes?

Draw the maturation stages of RBC

how is area related to species richness? draw the graph and derive the equation. how is the above significant to island biogeography.

(2 DNA sequences draw, one with excess AT, another with excess GC) which of the above will be more prone to damage by a toxic stress? how does DNA repair such damage?

Concentration of acetylchloine is 100 times greater in synaptic vesicles than in cytosol where it is produced. explain

A blastomere given...certain areas marked...q: which area will develop into which organ? (dont remember the ques properly..sorry)

Explain about the outlines of IgE  degranulation mechanism?
What is use of transgenic animals.
How biosensors work?
What is the fate of protein when its N terminal signal sequence binds to SRP?
Draw the structure of Guanosine monophosphate and show the number of every C and N atom.

Draw the ramachandran plot for D-Ala showing allowed combinations of the conformational angles.

Official Notification: BCIL Biotech Industrial Training Program (BITP) 2010-2011

Department of Biotechnology invites application from students in biotechnology for practical training in biotech companies. Stipend of Rs 8,000/- per month will be paid to selected candidates.
Objective of BITP is to provide inductrial exposure to students to improve job prospects and to help biotech industry to identify prospective manpower. since 1993, Hundreds of Post Graduates have been trained in leading biotech companies and several trainees have been absorbed by the industry.
Eligibility: B.Tech/B.E/M.sc/M.Tech/M.V.Sc in molecular & Human Genetics, Molecular Biology & Biotechnology, Neuro sciences, Biochemical Engineering & Biotechnology, Bioprocess Technology, General/Agricultural/Industrial/Marine/Medical/Pharmaceutical/Environmerntal/Plant/food/Animal Biotechnology, Completed in the year 2009 or 2010 with minimum 60% marks or equivalent grade. Students from DBT Supported teaching programmes will be given preferance. They will have to produce a certificate from their department head/course coordinator at the time of interview if shortlisted.
How to apply?
The application would be accepted online through BCIL website www.bcil.nic.in. A DD of Rs 500/- in favour of "Biotech Consortium India Limited, New Delhi" towards non -refundable application fee along with a hard copy of system generated acknowledgement after successful submission of application form, is to be sent at the address mentioned below:
Please write your application id, name, date of birth and mobile number on the reverse side of demand draft. Hard copies of the acknowledgement of applications and requisitions submitted online may please be sent to:
Mr manoj Gupta
Deputy Manager, Biotech consortium India Limited,
5th Floow, Anuvrat Bhawan,
210, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Marg,
New Delhi - 110002, Email: bcildelhi@vsnl.com latest by 10th july 2010.
Application does not guarantee training under BITP. Only shortlisted candidastes will be called for interview. Decision of selection committee will be final. Training does not ensure job placement. candidates interested in higher studies and research need not apply. Selected candidates will be required to join anywhere in india. Applications for change of location will not be entertained. No quieries will be entertained.
Apply Online

How DNA Is Copied Onto RNA Revealed Through Three-Dimensional Transcription Film

ScienceDaily (June 19, 2010) — Gene expression takes place in two stages: the transcription of DNA to RNA by an enzyme called RNA polymerase, , followed by the translation of this RNA into proteins, whose behaviour affects the characteristics of each individual.

Transcription: a mechanism controlled in time and space
Transcription involves about fifty regulatory molecules that interact with each other to begin reading the gene at the right place and the right time. The slightest irregularity of one of these molecules disturbs the transcription. An understanding of the initiation and regulation mechanisms is essential in order to understand gene expression. The structural biology researchers at IGBMC are studying molecular structures to gain a better understanding of how they function. Patrick Schultz's team is particularly focusing on the architecture of the molecules involved in transcription and attempting to decode the mechanisms of their interactions.
An 'image-by-image' analysis
An analysis of the transcription complexes by electron cryomicroscopy allows a molecule to be observed in a hydrated state close to its natural state. Each photograph, taken using a microscope, shows thousands of specimens of the same molecule from different angles and at different instants in their reaction cycle. The statistical analysis of these images performed by Patrick Schultz's team revealed different conformations in three dimensions, which correspond to different stages of transcription initiation. 'We performed image-by-image sequencing and made a film of the initial stages of transcription,' says Schultz.
The factor TFIID, the main player in the transcription process
Patrick Schultz's team is interested in a complex protein that acts as an assembly platform in the initiation phase of transcription: the factor TFIID. Through interaction with the activator Rap1, bound upstream from the gene to be transcribed, it is attracted to the DNA and binds onto it. Combined with another factor, TFIIA, it changes conformation and allows the RNA polymerase to initiate transcription. The original aspect of this mechanism is based on the formation of a DNA loop, which allows the RNA polymerase to be positioned exactly at the start of the sequence of the gene to be transcribed.
The structure of the transcription factor TFIID obtained after image analysis is represented in yellow on an electron cryomicroscopy image background, showing the frozen hydrated molecules in dark grey. The transcription activator Rap1 (red) interacts with the factor TFIIA (blue) and contributes to forming a DNA loop (green).
What is electron cryomicroscopy?
The biological molecules in living organisms exist in an aqueous environment, which must be preserved whilst observing the molecules. In order to be 'seen', however, molecules must be placed in an electron microscope, which operates in a vacuum and dehydrates the sample. The solution, developed in the 1980s, is to use refrigeration to keep the specimen hydrated and to examine it by electron cryomicroscopy. A very thin film (approximately 100 nm, or one ten-thousandth of a millimetre thick) of the suspension containing the sample to be analysed must be created in order to be transparent to electrons. (Thin film shown in light blue in Figure A.) This film is cooled very rapidly (at a rate of approximately 10,000°C per second) by plunging it into liquid ethane cooled to -170°C. This freezing speed prevents the formation of ice crystals, and the sample (yellow in Figure A) is trapped in a layer of vitrified water. The cold chain must be maintained throughout the observation period using a cold plate. The molecules (dark grey in Figure B) are hydrated and observed without contrast agent.

Craig Venter creates synthetic life form

On May 20th, J. Craig Venter and his team at J.C Venter Institute announced the creation of a cell controlled by a synthetic genome in a paper published in SCIENCE. As science historian George Dyson points out, "from the point of view of technology, a code generated within a digital computer is now self-replicating as the genome of a line of living cells. From the point of view of biology, a code generated by a living organism has been translated into a digital representation for replication, editing, and transmission to other cells."  This new development is all about operating on a large scale. "Reading the genetic code of a wide range of species," the paper says, "has increased exponentially from these early studies. Our ability to rapidly digitize genomic information has increased by more than eight orders of magnitude over the past 25 years " This is a big scaling up in our technological abilities. Physicist Freeman Dyson, commenting on the paper, notes that "the sequencing and synthesizing DNA give us all the tools we need to create new forms of life". But it remains to be seen how it will serve in practice.  One question is whether or not a DNA sequence alone enough to generate a living creature. One way of reading of the paper suggests this doesn't seem to be the case because of the use of old microplasma cells into which the DNA was inserted -- that this is not about "creating" life" because, the new life requires an existing living recipient cell. If this is the case, what is the chance of producing something de novo? The paper might appear to be about a somewhat banal technological feat. The new techniques build on existing capabilities. What else is being added, what is qualitatively new?  While it is correct to say that the individual cell was not created, a new line of cells (dare one say species?) was generated. This is new life that is self-propagating, i.e. "the cells with only the synthetic genome are self replicating and capable of logarithmic growth

The Fruit Fly Drosophila Gets a New Name

The name of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster will change to Sophophora melangaster. The reason is that scientists have by now discovered some 2,000 species of the genus and it is becoming unmanageably large. Unfortunately, the 'type species' (the reference point of the genus), Drosophila funebris is rather unrelated to the D. melanogaster, and ends up in a distant part of the relationship tree. However, geneticists have, according to Google Scholar, more than 300,000 scientific articles describing innumerable aspects of the species, and will have to learn the new name as well as remembering the old. As expected, the name change has created an emotional (and practical) stir all over media. While name changes are frequent in science, as they describe new knowledge about relationships between species, these changes rarely hit economically relevant species, and when they do, people get upset."

Nucleotide BLAST

Nucleotide BLAST refers to the use of a member of the BLAST suite of programs, such as “blastn” to search with a nucleotide “query” against a database of nucleotide “subject” sequences.


Available Nucleotide-Level Searches

There are two members of the BLAST suite of programs that are designed to make nucleotide-to-nucleotide alignments. The first is the original BLAST nucleotide search program known as “blastn.” The “blastn” program is a general purpose nucleotide search and alignment program that is sensitive and can be used to align tRNA or rRNA sequences as well as mRNA or genomic DNA sequences containing a mix of coding and noncoding regions. A more recently developed nucleotide-level BLAST program called MegaBLAST (7) is about 10 times faster than “blastn” but is designed to align sequences that are nearly identical, differing by only a few percent from one another. MegaBLAST allows the rapid mapping of a transcript onto a typical 3 billion base mammalian genome in seconds, and is useful for processing large batches of sequences. A refinement of MegaBLAST, known as discontiguous MegaBLAST, uses a discontiguous template to define an initial “word” in which characters in some positions, such as those in the wobble base position of codons, need not match. Discontiguous MegaBLAST allows rapid cross-species mappings involving coding regions in cases where species differences in codon usage would prevent alignments using the original MegaBLAST program.



Examples of Nucleotide BLAST Searches

Problem 1

Click on the link indicated by “P” next to the “Nucleotide-nucleotide BLAST (blastn)” to access the problem. This problem demonstrates how to use BLAST to find human sequences in GenBank that can be amplified with a particular primer pair. Access the nucleotide–nucleotide BLAST page (by clicking on the Nucleotide–nucleotide BLAST link). Paste both the forward and reverse primers into the BLAST input box. Insert a string of about 30 N’s after the first primer sequence to separate the two sequences to be found in separate, not overlapping alignments. Limit your search to human sequences by selecting “Homo sapiens” from the “All organisms” pull down menu under the Options for advanced blasting and click the BLAST! link. Retrieve results by clicking on the “Format” button. Look for two hits to the same database sequence.

In this result, shown in Fig. 1, there are 13 GenBank entries that align to both the forward and reverse primers at different locations (indicated by thick bars) with a gap in between (indicated by a thin gray bar). There are two GenBank entries that align only to the reverse primer. One alignment of the primer pair to the GenBank entry L78833.1 is shown in Fig. 2. The forward primer aligns to the sequence L78833.1 on the forward strand (as indicated by Strand Plus/Plus) at nucleotides 3252..3270. The reverse primer aligns to the reverse strand (as indicated by Strand Plus/Minus) at nucleotides 3475..3457. Thus, the two primers will amplify the sequence from nucleotides 3252..3475 of the entry L78833.1. Retrieve the entry L78833.1 in Entrez, by clicking on it. The annotation shows that the amplified region covers the Exon 1a and the upstream sequence of the BRCA1 gene. Refer to the Note 1 for the multiple hits. You may perform similar search against the human genome BLAST database.

DNA Looping and Gene Expression

DNA looping is exactly that - the DNA molecule actually forms loops. These loops are created by proteins and protein complexes binding to different regions of the DNA structure. The proteins interact with each other and this causes loops to form. DNA looping is involved in many cellular processes such as transcription, recombination, gene expression, and replication. The neat thing about DNA looping is that when loops form in the DNA structure proteins that are bound some distance away from the genes they control can be brought to the promoter region by looping the intervening DNA.


Types of DNA Looping

There are two different types of DNA looping. The classification comes from the physical forces that control their formation:

1) Short or energetic - for DNA ~150 bp elasticity is the dominant force, and the bending and twisting of DNA is important, as is the elastic properties of the molecules that tie the loop.

2) Long or entropic - what is key is the motion of the DNA regions in the cell before they find each other.


DNA Looping Uses:

DNA looping plays many important roles in the life of a cell. By bringing two DNA regions together DNA loops enable the transfer of genetic information during recombination; they also tie the ends of chromosomes, and regulate the length of telomeres.

It is therefore a safe bet to assume that many malfunctions that occur in our bodies will be down to faults in the DNA looping process. So the more that is known about how DNA loops make sure gene expression goes off without a hitch, and the right gene is turned on - the better our chances of being able to fix things when they go wrong.

Understanding DNA looping is a burgeoning research endeavour, especially as some diseases, including cancers are caused or made worse by incorrect looping and errors in gene expression

Charles Darwin's genetic history unlocked by DNA project

Scientists have used DNA from Charles Darwin's great-great grandson to map the ancestry of the world's most famous naturalist.




Published almost 200 years after the birth, the results reveal that the father of evolutionary theory, who struck upon the theory that all humans are descended from one common ancestor, comes from a long line of adventurers, his forbears being some of the first modern humans to leave Africa for the Middle East.



The ambitious Genealogy Project, a five-year initiative backed by National Geographic and IBM, uses powerful new technology to examine DNA, allowing scientists to see back to the very earliest days of the human species and map how and when they moved around the globe.



One of the 350,000 members of the public tested so far was Chris Darwin, a tour guide and adventurer who lives in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney.



Because genetic information is passed from father to son via the Y chromosome, Mr Darwin would share a large part of his genetic data with his great-great grandfather, who wrote The Origin of The Species.



Tests on Mr Darwin's DNA, collected from a swab of his saliva, showed that his ancestors, and those of Darwin himself, were among the first wave of modern humans to leave Africa for the Middle East about 45,000 years ago.



From there, they travelled into Europe, surviving the Ice Age by migrating south to Spain, before moving north to England about 12,000 years ago.



The tests revealed that Charles Darwin belonged to the Haplogroup R1b, direct descendants of the Cro-Magnon people who dominated the human expansion into Europe and heralded the demise of the Neanderthals.



Mr Darwin, who migrated to Australia from England in 1986, said his great-great grandfather would have been fascinated by the results of the study.



"He would have been amazed by the amount of detail you can get looking at your genes and the fact that you can tell where your ancestors were at a certain time," he said.



"Back then genetics was not understood at all, so he would have been fascinated to have seen that he got it basically right and that data like this is available."



Mr Darwin, whose great-grandfather was Darwin's astronomer son George, said the test showed that the desire for knowledge and thirst for discovery was in his genetic makeup.



"I was always a bit concerned that I hadn't inherited Charles Darwin's scientific abilities, but I hoped I had inherited his adventurous abilities, his desire to go over the hill and see what was on the other side," he said.



"From what I hear of my background we like looking over the tops of hills.



We were the first people to leave Africa for the crossroads of Asia."



Dr Spencer Wells, The Genographic Project director, said that he hoped to compile data on at least another 100,000 people before the study was completed.



"We all carry a historical document in ourselves that allows us to see back to the very earliest days of our species," he said.



"Through mutations in our genes we can track the migrations of our species all around the world."



The goal of the five-year study was to try to explain the migratory history of the human species, he said.

Role of CORBA in Molecular Biology

CORBA (Common Object Request Broker Architecture), as an open standard, is considered to be a good solution for the development and deployment of applications in distributed heterogeneous environements.




This technology can be applied in the bioinformatics area to enhance utlization, management and interoperation between biological resources.



Distributed object technology is considered to be a revolution for software design in heterogeneous computing environments. Using this approach, an application can be abstracted and divided into self-managing objects that can interoperate acros heterogeneous networks and operating systems. The OMG, the largest consortium of more than 700 member organisations, has been focussing on specifying the elegant architecture on which objects written by different vendors can interoperate across networks and operating systems. Its main product is the precise specification of the CORBA.



The specification describes a software bus, called as Object Request Broker (ORB), that provides an infrastructure on which a client can invoke the methods of server objects without the knowledge of where the server objects are located, how they are implemented, whether the object is currently activated and what communication mechanisms are used. Usually, a client only needs to know what types of operations an object can provide, i.e. the object s interface. Object interfaces are defined using OMG s Interface Definition Language (IDL). IDL is a declarative language which helps to define object interfaces separately from their implementation. Thus language independence, which is an essential feature of CORBA, is supported.



The use of CORBA in a biological context was introduced by Hu et al. and Lijnzaad et al.



Expressed Sequence Tags (ESTs) are cheap, easy, and quick to obtain relative to full genomic sequencing and currently sample more eukaryotic genes than any other data source. ESTs are particularly useful for developing Sequence Tag Sites (STSs for mapping), polymorphism discovery, disease gene hunting, mass spectrometer protemics, and most ironically for finding genes and predicting gene structure after the great effort of genomic sequencing.



Sequence databases are currently the most familiar biological database and a typical source for EST sequences. Traditionally these databases are presented and distributed using "flat file" views of the sequence originally submitted, but these static raw views are being superseded by novel interfaces better suited to the need of academic and industrial researchers. The new browsing interfaces are needed because current research may need to investigate nucleotide or protein sequences grouped by their function, phylogeny, map position, cellular location, expression regulation, disease association, annotation similarity or metabolic pathway etc.



To support these new investigative cross-database clients, it is useful to have standardized API level access to both data and services - a requirement where CORBA is starkly appropriate. In summary, ESTs are inherently difficult data to handle (yet extremely useful) so they are a natural target for new efforts to improve data quality, cross database browsing and novel visualization tools. Of all the biological databases, EST databases have been the most conspicuous in recent years both because of their prodigious growth rates and because of their increase in intrinsic importance connecting different areas of biological research.



ESTs have many problems that stem from their means of production. The cDNA library from which any ESTs are drawn will sample the levels of expression in a particular tissue at a particular time: rare transcipts will be missed and highly expressed genes will be overly abundant. This latter problem, redundancy, is both wasteful and difficult to handle due to the extreme volume of error prone data. Redundancy can be reduced in the laboratory using normalization techniques.



To address the redundancy problem using computer techniques, a variety of EST clustering programs have been implemented. Once clustered, gene fragments can be assembled using sequence assembly programs, or both steps can be combined in large-scale EST assembly and gene indexing protocols. An assembly stage adds two main benefits: first, it produces contigs and consensus sequences which can completely hide EST redundancy and second, it should also improve the length and quality of the gene reconstructions beyond that available from any one EST. For some applications, the clustering is all that is required, for example, the early stages of STS mapping but for others, sophisticated cluster partitioning or complex assemblies are more suitable.

Ready To Eat Rice Without Cooking

Yes. Scientists of Central Rice Research Institute (CRRI), developed new rice variant named "Aghaono Bora", a soft rice or komal chawl, takes 45 minutes if soaked in normal water and if the water is lukewarm, it is ready in 15 minutes.


However, the soft rice varieties grown across Assam and the North-East, are ready to eat after they are soaked in plain water. it is a low-yielding crop that grows only in a cool climate.

The Scientists from CRRI, one of the premier research institutes on grains in the world, developed a hybrid of traditional soft rice with a high yielding variety of regular rice, that could be grown in different climates across India.

"We wanted to see whether the same rice can be grown here and retain the same properties. We saw it behaves the same way. Simply soak it in water and the rice is ready to eat but the quality of water has to be clean and potable. The idea is to avoid any waterborne disease," said Tapan Kumar Adhya, director, CRRI.

“This rice variety, which comes under soft rice category, helps in saving fuel as it doesn’t require any boiling ,” said Tapan Kumar Adhya.

In Orissa where 'pakhal' or cooked rice fermented in water is a hot favorite, the soft rice is expected to be a hit. It's environment-friendly and will save a huge amount of fuel and time.