Message:

Plant molecular biology and biotechnology have made significant strides in the past two decades years encompassing within its fold the spectacular developments in modern biology. Awesome power of molecular biology could solve several vexing problems in agriculture. Judicious integration of the tools of molecular biology in plant breeding can enhance crop yields several fold. Global introduction of transgenic crops endowed with traits for insect pest resistance, herbicide tolerance and resistance to viral diseases has revolutionized crop productivity in cotton, maize, soybean etc., Agronomically important characters such as drought tolerance, photosynthetic efficiency, nutrient use efficiency and nitrogen fixation will be manipulated in the near future to enhance the genetic and physiological potential of the crops. Sequence information about the genomes of Arabidopsis, rice, Sorghum, Medicago etc., will have far reaching implications for future agriculture. Studies on structural and functional genomics of plant species are expected to revolutionize the complexion of agricultural biotechnology. NRC on Plant Biotechnology focuses on the national priorities and employs state-of-the-art technologies to meet the challenge of ensuring food and nutritional security for the millions.