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A-PDF Merger DEMO : Purchase from www.A-PDF.com to remove the watermark PROCEEDINGS OF THE NINETY EIGHTH SESSION OF THE INDIAN SCIENCE CONGRESS CHENNAI, 2011 PART II SECTION OF PLANT SCIENCES President : Prof. T. N. Lakhanpal CONTENTS I. Presidential Address 1-35 II. Abstract of Platinum Jubilee Lecture 1-2 III. Abstract of Award Lecture/ Young Scientist Award Programme 1-3 IV. Abstracts of Symposium/Invited Lecture 1-48 V. Abstracts of Oral/Poster Presentation 1-174 VI. List of Past Sectional Presidents 1-2 98th Indian Science Congress January 3-7, 2011, Chennai I PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS Prof. T. N. Lakhanpal A-PDF Merger DEMO : Purchase from www.A-PDF.com to remove the watermark Section XIV : Plant Sciences 1 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS Biodiversity and Biotechnology- Explore Experience and Enjoy President : Professor T. N. Lakhanpal* Hon’ble Chairman, the elite assembly of “Ever Greens” delegates, ladies and gentlemen, at the outset allow me to express my deep sense of gratitude to the fraternity in plant sciences for having elected me Sectional President unanimously. It is not only a great honour but a rare privilege to be part of the continuum that nurtured and illuminated the path of botanical teaching and research over a century and brought it to the level where we feel securely anchored to-day. I realize my limitations, still with the blessings of all those, I venture to step into their shoes. Therefore, I dedicate this address to all those, but before them to the Divine, Lotus Feet of the Almighty, and then at the reverential feet of my parents and teachers who moulded and groomed this inconspicuous ‘spore’ into a ‘conspicuous fruiting body’. The entire credit for making me tread the path and attain the goal is theirs, since “No one unaware of the goal can choose the path and No one unaware of the path can reach the goal”. I also dedicate this lecture to the ‘battery’ of my students who trained me in patience and perseverance and were continuously a part of my learning process, shaping Information into Knowledge and Knowledge into Wisdom. I have attempted to select a subject which is in conformity with the main theme of the Science Congress; because I realized that the best ethical role models are the Plants! Along with this came the realization that the Nature provides the best experience and enjoyment, if explored properly. Hence the topic I wish to share with you all is Biodiversity and Biotechnology : Explore Experience and Enjoy. The topic begins with nature, and its inherent ethics, the biodiversity that it supports, and groups I worked with during the last four decades. Nature exhibits multiplicity of objects. Multiplicity results from multiplication i.e. when one becomes many. Multiplication leads to variations and variations bring in diversity. This diversity is like rainbow or seven musical notes, which have origin *Department of Biosciences, Himachal Pradesh University, Shimla-171005, H.P. 2 Proc. 98th Indian Science Congress, Part II : Presidential Address in a single source. Hence the apparently diverse forms are inherently unified. The diversity offers opportunities for exploration, experience and enjoyment. But enjoyment or bliss is perceived only when the senses are used in moderation. Diversity at global level is estimated to be represented by 5-30 million species of living forms on the earth. Of these only 1. 5 million have been identified, which include 3,00,000 species of green plants and fungi, 8,00,000 species of insects 40, 000 species of vertebrates and around 3,60,000 species of microbes. In India over 1,15000 species of plants and animals have been identified so far, in which about 15000 species of flowering plants, 2700 Bryophytes, 1600 Lichens, 500 Algae, 600 Pteridophytes and 20,000 Fungi. Proteomics and Genomics reveal that all this diversity of organisms is unified at molecular level. There is a unity of purpose in nature and all these organisms are not totally independent but exhibit dependence in the ecosystem. Nature and its constituents are role models for man to emulate. For example the plants not only get sustenance from earth but provide sustenance to millions of members of biota. Similarly the different cycles operative in nature are also excellent role models exhibiting regularity in duty with devotion and discipline. In this wonderful world of plants, fungi are a very diverse group of organisms both like and unlike plants. They are in fact more diverse than any other group of organisms. Though colourless (without chlorophyll), they are most ‘colorful’ and amazing. During the last almost four decades, I had an opportunity to Explore, Experience and Enjoy this wondrous group of organisms. Some of the traditional groups I worked with are not even considered as true fungi in the recent systems of classification. The groups I worked with are the Cellular Slime Moulds (Acrasiomyetes) and Acellular Slime Moulds (Myxomycetes). The other groups of my interest have been mushrooms and toadstools (Discomycetes, Agaricals and Aphyllopharales) and mycorrhiza. I was introduced to the fascinating world of myxomycetes by my revered teacher, Prof. K. S. Thind, Punjab University, Chandigarh and later I could carry this interest forward under the guidance of Prof. K. G. Mukerji University of Delhi, both doyens in the realm of fungi. The myxomycetes have been called Animal- Plants because they defy man made classifications and share characteristics with both plants and animals. They are plant-like in their manner of reproduction and resemble the animals in the characteristics of their assimilative phase. The assimilative phase consists of a free living, acellular mobile mass of protoplasm, the Section XIV : Plant Sciences 3 Plasmodium which exhibits a characteristic, rhythmical reversible streaming of the protoplasm at a very high velocity and shows synchronous nuclear division. They unify plants and animals exemplifying the unity in diversity as if saying “All are one, be alike to everyone”. They have rendered service not only to taxonomists but to physiologists, biochemists and geneticists being good model systems for understand- ing biochemical characteristics and nature of protoplasm, Physarum polycephalum being the most used taxa. The work on slime moulds initially was related to systematics but later on it was extended to life cycle studies, genetic behavior, sporophere development and corticolus myxomycetes. Before our studies only 36 genera and 183 species of myxomycetes were known, now the figure stands at 48 genera and 350 species. 12 genera and 50 new species have been recorded in addition to a large number of new records. Pioneering work on ecology of myxomycete, especially those which inhabit bark of living trees has also been carried out (Thind, 1977; Lakhanpal and Mukerji, 1981 Lakhanpal, & Chopra, 1994; Lakhanpal, 1994; Lakhanpal, 1983, Chopra, 1984). The other equally interesting group of slime moulds is the cellular slime moulds having a world renowned representative Dictyostelium discoideum which became almost synonymous with studies on morphogenesis. Pioneering work on this group was carried out by Cavender and Lakhanpal (1986). In India little attention had been paid to this group till then. Agnihothrudu (1956) made a brief report on dictyostelids in rhizosphere of cultivated plants in Southern India. Rai & Tiwari (1961) reported on two species occurring around Lucknow. In our studies dictyostelids were isolated from soils collected from five vegetational- climatic zones from sea level to an elevation of 2700 m. Twelve species were isolated from West Central Himalaya as well as from tropical forests in Peninsular India. The greatest average density of propagules was in soils of cool temperate oak-pine zone. A total of 6353 clones were isolated Polysphondylium pallidum was represented in all zones. D. aureo-stipes was particularly abundant in the slopes of Himalaya. In terms of species composition and diversity, population of the West Central Himalaya and Peninsular India were more similar to those of East Africa than South East Asia. Cellular slime moulds are so called because most of them have walled cells in their stalks. They are delicate, ephemeral, minute and inconspicuous. The unit structure in them is a uninucleate, naked, haploid myxamoeba that feeds by engulfing bacteria; the myxamoebae aggregate to form a pseudoplasmodium (Grex or Slug), in which the constituent myxamoebae retain their individuality, yet 4 Proc. 98th Indian Science Congress, Part II : Presidential Address cooperate as members of well organized community until sporulation, earning the name ‘communal slime moulds’. Alexopoulos et al. (1996) point out that ‘here is an opportunity to study the problem of unicellularity and multicellularity and also the problem of differentiation which have intrigued biologists for centuries’. These slime moulds teach a valuable lesson in cooperation and coexistence for man to emulate for man is a limb of society and the society is limb of creation and there is expected to be a harmonious relationship amongest them for appreciating unity in diversity. My journey with mushrooms initially and then with mycorrhiza began after joining the department of Bioscience, in HP University, Shimla in 1976. It was discovered that the agarics of N. W. Himalaya were not explored much though the area presented very favourable conditions for the growth of agarics. The Himalayas represent the loftiest chain of mountain in the world. Himachal Pradesh is situated between 30022’-33012N and 75047’-79004E in the North-Western Himalayas along the northern border of India. The forests in the state vary from tropical to alpine pastures. The varied climatic conditions and altitudinal zones make the state rich in natural resources. The Himalayan forests are natural reservoirs of a wide variety of wild mushrooms. Mushrooms are the macro fungi with fleshy, subfleshy, or sometimes leathery, umbrella like sporophores that bear their fertile surface either on lamellae or lining the tubes, opening out by means of pores.