Gene isolation is lack of interbreeding or little genetic mixing between organisms of the same species. The entire set of genes in a genome, requires that they be isolated and study intensively. Gene isolation from thermophilic bacteria is a promising alternative in biotechnological, environmental, and industrial applications. Gene isolation may form new species in several ways.
Isolating a specific gene, one often begins by constructing a DNA library. This Library contains at least one fragment that contains the gene of interest. The technique involves running out the DNA on an agarose gel. There are three standard categories of transmission based precautions include 1) Contact isolation 2) droplets isolation 3) Airborne isolation.
Researchers have a success to isolated a sequence of genes in mangrove species, Avicennia marina, which is highly salt tolerant. A team of researchers at the centre of advanced Studies in Marine Biology, Annamalai University, Porto Nova, SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Chennai and the Institute of Life Sciences, Bhubaneswar, Odisha achieved this feat.
The SRM University assistant professor Purushottam Natarajan said that - we have assembled the complete genome of Avicennia marina using advanced genomics techniques. We have identified 31,477 protein coding genes and a salinome consisting of 3246 salinity responsive genes including 614 experimentally validated salinity tolerance genes. The salinome provides a strong foundation to understand the molecular mechanisms of salinity tolerance in plants and to breed crops suitable for seawater farming.
The SRM university professor Parani Madasamy said that - the study acquires significance at a time when the global agriculture productivity is hit due to lack of water and salinization of arable lands. The Marina roots work as a bio-desalination unit that filters out the salt from the seawater. We have decoded the complete genome and identified salinity tolerance genes. These genes will help in the genetic engineering of crop plants to grow in the 900 million hectares of saline soil in the country.
Porto Nova (Assistant professor, centre of Advenced study in marine biology,Annamalai University) and Ayyaru Gopalakrishnan (researcher) said that - It is a salt secreting and extraordinarily salt tolerant mangrove species that can grow in 75% seawater and tolerates more than 250% seawater. Understanding the mangrove plants at the genome level will be necessary for developing such highly salt tolerant agricultural crops.
The isolation of the genome play a important role in developing drought and salt tolerant food crops along the 7500 km coastline in the country. The department of biotechnology funded the research. The study identified 614 genes in Avicenna marina with immense salt tolerant properties. The research paper was published in the July issue of the Nature Communications Biology journal.