Seed Biotechnology Research Group works closely with Plant Biotechnology, Plant Functional groups and mainly focuses on trait improvement/Commercialization of economically important crops. Insect pest and herbicide resistant traits have been successfully engineered by this group in cotton, corn, and sugarcane. The stable lines of transgenic cotton expressing two (cry1Ac+cry2A) and three (cry1Ac+cry2A+GTG) insecticidal genes introgressed with local cotton cultivars. Punjab Seed Council has approved four double genes (CEMB-33, CA-12, CEMB-66 and CEMB-100) and four triple genes varieties (CKC-01, CKC-03, CKC-06 and CKC-05) of cotton for general cultivation. These varieties have shown tremendous potential in farmers’ fields and have resulted in increased farm productivity.

The Seed Biotechnology Lab also focuses on the use of modern molecular tools for crop improvement. The projects are being carried out to breed biotic stress tolerant crops by utilizing techniques like RNA Interference and CRISPR-Cas9. The formulation of dsRNA based biopesticides against notorious insect pests is also underway.

Besides that, the group is also working on development of local transgenic maize technology to develop Bt, herbicide tolerant F1 maize hybrids in collaboration with local seed industry. The developed transgenic inbred have been approved for contained field trials by National Biosafety Committee, Ministry of Climate Change, Pakistan. Insect pests and weeds incur significant losses to Soybean and Canola. Regeneration protocols of local soybean and canola varieties are being developed in the laboratory to introduce insecticidal (cry1Ac+cry2A) and herbicidal genes (pat+EPSP synthase) in soybean and canola.

Recently, new research area involving plant metabolic engineering and synthetic biology has been started and major goal of this research is to decipher molecular mechanism underlying plant defense and adaptive responses under continue varying environmental conditions by maneuvering plant metabolic pathways. There is limited information available about biosynthetic pathways of majority of the secondary metabolites and this research is focused on to elucidate such pathways by identifying and characterizing key genes catalyzing rate-limiting steps involved in their biosynthesis. Few of the metabolites, currently, under investigation are gossypol and steroidal glycoalkaloids produced in cotton and potato plants respectively. To achieve it, combination of transcriptomics, metabolomics, analytical chemistry and molecular biology is being employed and setting up a platform where genetic circuits can be rewired or modulate to increase the directional carbon flux for the synthesis of targeted compound or metabolite. This research will help to unravel the control mechanisms evolved naturally for the synthesis of specialized metabolites and provide an opportunity to modulate their biosynthesis for our own interests that may find use in future breeding purposes.

Seed Biotech Lab. has been working on genetic improvement of sugarcane varieties for several years. Tissue culture protocols have been optimized and published in peer review articles. We have developed insect, herbicide tolerant with enhanced sugar recovery sugarcane lines in collaboration with SRI, AARI Faisalabad. It is pertinent to mention here that insect and virus resistant sugarcane varieties developed at CEMB have recently got permission for the field trials from National Biosafety Committee, Ministry of Climate Change, Pakistan.

Seed Biotech Lab is one of the designated laboratories by regulatory authorities (Pakistan Environment Agency, Ministry of Climate Change, FSC&RD and PSC). Therefore, Lab. Is also rendering commercial services for DNA, RNA and proteins-based GMOs detection and DNA fingerprinting of crop varieties.