Elec17

Totipotency, culture requirements, morphogenesis, specialized culture systems, and major agricultural applications of plant tissue culture.

Stages of micropropagation, commercial applications in India, cryopreservation, and somatic hybridization through protoplast fusion including cybrids and applications.

Types of molecular markers — RFLP, RAPD, AFLP, SSR, ISSR, SNP, DArT — principles, comparison, and applications in diversity analysis, genetic mapping, fingerprinting, and crop breeding.

MAS types — foreground, background, MABB, pyramiding, genomic selection — QTL mapping methods, association mapping (GWAS), fine mapping, and success stories in Indian crop breeding.

Structural and functional genomics — crop genome sequencing, NGS technologies, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, reverse genetics (RNAi, TILLING), bioinformatics tools, and comparative genomics.

Methods of genetic transformation — Agrobacterium, biolistic, floral dip — selection and confirmation, transgenic crops globally and in India, regulatory framework, and biosafety concerns.

ZFN, TALENs, and CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing — mechanism, advanced tools (base editors, prime editing), applications in crop improvement, and regulatory status globally and in India.

Indian GM-crop regulation, genome-editing policy, major bioinformatics tools, and intellectual property systems relevant to crop biotechnology.