Departments - Plant Cell Biotechnology

The department had its beginnings in the global food shortage of the 1960s, when a survey by FAO pointed at deficiencies in protein supplies at the root of the shortage, particularly in the developing countries. Global spotlight then turned to protein malnutrition and its alleviation, and experts found that single cell protein (SCP), particularly micro-algae consumed by the natives of Central Africa and Central America would be an effective solution to the problem, as an alternative source of protein. Germany immediately took the initiative to start algal projects at Thailand, Peru and India, and CFTRI became its natural choice for the Indian assignment. Dr. E.W.Becker from the university of Tubingen came here to start the project in 1973, along with Mrs. Becker and other scientists, and they began with algal cultivation, acquisition of strains, and collection of climatic data on Mysore city-thus sowing the seeds of this department.

In 1974, the department became responsible for the production of algae for human consumption and animal feeds, for an all-India project. Nutritional studies under the project were initiated on the green algal form Scenedesmus. In 1976, the project was handed over to CFTRI for continuation. A major development of this period was the establishment of Scenedesmus as a great source of SCP. With its nutritional advantages, cholesterol-reducing property and safety, the alga came as an exciting response to the global search for sources of SCP. However, owing to its complexities in harvesting, Scenedesmus gradually gave way to the alga Spirulina as an alternative.

At the end of the project, its scientists began to envisage the vast scope that plant cell biotechnology offered for food applications. Uniform planting material through micro-propagation; high-value food additives such as food colours, flavours and sweeteners; bio-active compounds of importance such as bio-pesticides-these were the major applications that excited them to found an independent department for algal biotechnology as well as plant tissue and cell culture in CFTRI. The Department of Autotrophic Cell Culture thus came into existence in 1986, and the name was appropriately upgraded as the Department of Plant Cell Biotechnology in 1991, based on the department's creditable performance in the development of a range of laboratory level processes for food additives and bio-pesticides.

The department focuses on plant biotechnology in the specialised areas of Algal Biotechnology and Tissue/Cell Culture of Plants as also Molecular Biology and Genetic Engineering. The major emphasis is on,

- Development of health foods, food additives and natural products
   from plant cell/ microalgal cultures
- Improvement of plants for production of food-value metabolites in cell
   cultures, and for better processing characteristics
- Biochemical studies on elicitation of secondary metabolite
   pathways to engineer or regenerate plants.
- Immobilization of plant cells and algal cells for biotransformation of
   low-value compounds into high-value end-products.
- Micropropagation of plants that yield fruits and vegetables, and
   those that produce food additives.
- Field testing of tissue-culture-derived plants
- Nutritional quality analysis, feed formulation, evaluation of
   mycotoxigenesis and food safety
- Process scale-up and bio-reactor designing
- Tissue culture of bio-active plants for extraction of pyrethrin,
   thiophene.

Technologies
Algal Biotechnology

- Pioneering the development of total technology for cultivation of
   international-quality Spirulina, and for its utilization in food, feed and
   pharmaceutical sectors. Hailed as a technology of global
   importance, it has spurred a whole new industry for mass production of Spirulina and its varied applications (as Spirulina powder) across Asia.

- Development of culture conditions for optimal extraction of the
   pigment phycocyanin by downstream processing of cyano-bacterial
   bio-mass. phycocyanin is a rare natural blue pigment of value in
   food and cosmetics, and also in nutraceuticals as an anti-oxidant
   and anti-tumour agent. Japan and USA being the only other
   countries with capabilities to produce this value added product of
   Spirulina, our breakthrough has won world-wide attention.

- Production of food flavourants by bio-transformation of algal cells
   (Vanilla flavour compound from phenyl propanoids is a major
   development here.)

- Development of several key health-grade formulations (as
   supplements of proteins, vitamins and minerals, anti-oxidants and
   skin creams) from Spirulina.

- Recipes for applications in supplementing fish feed and poultry feed
- Development of a simplified medium for autotrophic cultivation of
   Haematococcus, a green alga known to yield astaxanthin, a red
   pigment of high value in food and feed industries.
- Enrichment of Spirulina biomass with iron, selenium, iodine and zinc
- Development of different drying methods of Spirulina biomass, such
   as drum drying, cross-flow drying and spray drying for industrial level production and sun drying for rural applications.

Plant Cell Culture

- Pioneering cell culture processes for the elicitation of secondary
   metabolites of wide-ranging food and industrial use, such as
   colours, flavours, sweeteners and pungent food additives:
   anthocyanin (food colourant from mutated cells of carrot),
   betalaines(food colourant from beet root), capsaicin (pungent food
   additive from immobilized capsicum cells), pyrethrin (bio-insecticide
   from chrysanthemum, for repelling mosquito), thiophene
   (anti-bacterial food preservative and flavourant from swallow root),
   vanillin (vanilla flavour in capsicum cell lines), esculin and esculantin
   (medicinal compounds from chicory roots), and compounds for
   Basmati flavour, saffron colour and flavour, and liquourice
   sweetness.

- Designing special bioreactors and using them for scaling-up plant
   cell cultures and hairy root cultures.

- Micro-propagation of food value plants such as mentha, gardenia,
   banana, beet root, vanilla, sweet liquorice (Glycyrrhizha) and
   chicory.

- Hairy root culture of red beet (beet colour) and marigold (thiophene
   for bio-insecticides).
- Production of bio-pesticides of importance in storage of food grains.

- A full-scale pilot plant, with cement tanks of different configurations,
   for large-scale production of biomass in an outdoor cultivation area
   of 150 sq.m., and harvesters and driers for bio-mass processing, for
   algal biotechnology research.
- An exclusive plant tissue-culture facility, the culture rooms featuring
   photo-period- and temperature-regulation equipment.
- Laminar flow clean benches for inoculations.
- Fermentors of special use in plant cell cultures.
- Rotary shakers for cell and tissue culture.
- General laboratory equipment including HPLC, pH meter,
   spectrophotometer, spectro-flourometer, microscopes, deep freezer,
   centrifuges and electrophoretic apparatus.
- An exclusive cold room for biochemical work.