Mohamad Romizan Osman

Simple and Rapid Molecular Techniques for Identification of Amylose Levels in Rice Varieties

The polymorphisms of Waxy (Wx) microsatellite and G-T single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the Wx gene region were analyzed using simplified techniques in fifteen rice varieties. A rapid and reliable electrophoresis method, MetaPhor agarose gel electrophoresis (MAGE), was effectively employed as an alternative to polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) for separating Wx microsatellite alleles. The amplified products containing the Wx microsatellite ranged from 100 to 130 bp in length. Five Wx microsatellite alleles, namely (CT)10, (CT)11, (CT)16, (CT)17, and (CT)18 were identified. Of these, (CT)11 and (CT)17 were the predominant classes among the tested varieties. All varieties with an apparent amylose content higher than 24% were associated with the shorter repeat alleles; (CT)10 and (CT)11, while varieties with 24% or less amylose were associated with the longer repeat alleles. All varieties with intermediate and high amylose content had the sequence AGGTATA at the 5′-leader intron splice site, while varieties with low amylose content had the sequence AGTTATA. The G-T polymorphism was further verified by the PCR-AccI cleaved amplified polymorphic sequence (CAPS) method, in which only genotypes containing the AGGTATA sequence were cleaved by AccI. Hence, varieties with desirable amylose levels can be developed rapidly using the Wx microsatellite and G-T SNP, along with MAGE.

Research and development of transgenic plants in Malaysia: an example from an Asian developing country.

In 2000, agriculture contributed 13% to the national gross domestic product of Malaysia. the country of 23 million people has created a competitive program coordinated by the Ministry of Science, Technology and the Environment, research institutions, and universities to undertake biotechnology research in several areas. Intensified research efforts are under way on oil palm, rubber, rice, papaya, and orchids. Although the most progress has been made in rice and papaya, no transgenic crop is ready for field trials. Nonetheless, preliminary steps have been taken to prepare for the trials, and detailed testing protocols are being developed.

Spatial Assessment of Water Quality Affected by the Land-Use Changes Along Kuantan River Basin

This study addresses the effects of development on water quality in the Kuantan River Basin from 2003 to 2008. Chemometrics analysis namely MLR, HACA, DA and PCA was utilised as part of the methods for this study. From the result, MLR was irrefutably proven as an efficient predicting method for missing data. HACA classified seven stations as Low Polluted Stations (LPS), six stations as Moderate Polluted Stations (MPS) and two stations as High Polluted Stations (HPS). DA result depicted the accuracy rate for all reclassified data was 83.61 % respectively, while the constituting parameters namely Dissolved Oxygen (DO), Escherichia coli (E. coli), pH, Phosphate (PO4), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), and Chloride (Cl), gave the biggest impacts towards water quality by means of forward and backward stepwise methods. The PCA result after varimax rotation indicated that five varimax factors have presented strong parameter coefficient exceeding 0.7 by E. coli, coliform, Dissolved Solids (DS), Total Solids (TS), Chlorine (Cl), Ammonical Nitrogen (NH3NL), nitrate and pH. The relationship between land use and water quality denoted that after applying Spearman correlation based on 90 % interval population distribution, aspects influencing the rate of DO was successfully identified.