" Genome Mapping for Molecular breeding in cassava . "
Post by:Assistant Professor Dr. Kanokporn Triwitayakorn

          Cassava is one of the most economically important crops in Thailand. During the years 2009-2010, Thailand produced some 22 million tons of cassava and exported it in the forms of cassava flour, chips and pellets generating a total income of about 66 thousand million baht. However, decreased cassava production has been reported due to problems with outbreaks of pests and diseases as well as natural disasters including flood and drought. At the same time as the production of cassava has been limited, demand for cassava products for industrial applications has increased, especially for ethanol production. .

" New RNA Technology for Shrimp Reproduction "

          Shrimp aquaculture industry in Thailand has been rapidly expanded in the last few decades generating an annual income of several hundred thousand Baht to the country. The production of shrimp fry in the hatcheries has been successful by using wild broodstock captured from the sea. However, shrimp broodstock do not fully develop the oocytes in captive conditions. Normally, reproductive maturation of the broodstock needs to be induced by ablating the eyestalk, the common practice that destroys the production site of gonad-inhibiting hormone (GIH) and allows the oocytes to mature.

"The Drosophila melanogaster Glutathione Transferases."

     Analysis of the Drosophila melanogaster genome database identifies a diverse superfamily of glutathione transferases (GSTs). At present, this superfamily consists of 36 genes which encode 41 cytosolic GST proteins in the proteome. Using this information to generate specific primers and a Drosophila S2 embryonic cell line for mRNA template, we performed RT-PCR and obtained all 41 GST coding sequences for recombinant heterologous expression. Current annotations of the database show 19 of the 36 GST genes possess a single exon that encodes the full length protein. At present, seven classes of mammalian cytosolic GSTs have been identified; Alpha, Mu, Pi, Theta, Omega, Sigma and Zeta. In fact the last four classes, Theta, Omega, Sigma and Zeta, appear to exist in all eukaryotes...

"Uncover the Pathway of Cell Death"
         While numerous studies have shown that both primary and transformed cells undergo apoptosis in response to dengue infection, the mechanism by which this occurs remains the subject of considerable controversy. Apoptotic cell death occurs through two main pathways, an intrinsic pathway mediated by events occurring inside the cell and an extrinsic  pathway where the death signal occurs from outside the cell. Both pathways have been implicated in mediating cell death in dengue infected cells.

"Roles of Melatonin on Proliferation and Differentiation of Neural Stem Cells"
         Our result showed that melatonin promoted the proliferation of precursor cells and the differentiation of precursor cells to neuronal cells without up regulating the number of GFAP cells. In addition the effect on mature neuron or age-related brain, enhancement of neurogenesis by melatonin may contribute to the beneficial effects on hippocampus plasticity and resistance to age–related neuronal degeneration.