Plant Molecular Biotechnology Research Laboratory at University of Rajshahi:

In 2016, I have set up my own laboratory (Lab space area: 900 sq feet), which is equipped with modern molecular biology facilities grant obtained from University Grant Commission Bangladesh. It consists of main lab room for student's experimental tables, Lab equipments room, Tissue culture transfer room and Tissue culture growth chamber. There is plant experimental garden situated nearby the main academic building (Dr. Kudrat-e-khuda Academic Building), where a polyhouse  fitted with shade net facilities (Space area: 1000 sq feet). This garden also contains a store-room and a net house. Plant experiments have been carried out in this controlled environment. Moreover, the various banana tissue culture plantlets are hardened in this polyhouse for selling to the farmers.  Overall, I have enough facilities for research and development in plant Molecular Biotechnology fields.  Two laboratory technicians have been hired for production of TC banana (Meher sagor, Rongila Sagor, Agnishor and Sabri plantlets) except Master/PhD Thesis students. The salaries for these three technicians are provided by the money obtained from the selling of TC plants to farmers. Moreover, our Master and PhD students are getting various research assistantship every year from my ongoing research project funded by various organizations.

Translational research in Molecular Biotechnology for Plant Disease Resistance

Twenty years from now, the earth’s population will need 55% more food than it can produce now. But agriculture is facing severe challenges, such as global climate change, exhausted resources, reduction of arable lands and various pathogens attacks. Advances in transgenics, molecular biology and molecular breeding technologies may offer potential solutions to these agricultural problems. My aim is to integrate interdisciplinary resources, skills and facilities in R&D pipeline and to further translate the gained knowledge into practices. My targets are as follows: (1) Isolation and identification the useful plant genes (also proteins) with novel characteristics or desirable traits such as pathogen resistance and/or abiotic stress tolerance from crop plants, (2) Isolation and characterization of disease causing viruses and fungi to study the pathogen-plant (host) interaction and their molecular evolution. The important genes from plant, fungi or virus will be cloned and expressed in bacteria, Pichia and Sf9 cells to characterize them at molecular levels. Finally the target genes will be transformed into model plants (tomato) by Agrobacterium mediated genetic transformation or by particle bombardment to observe the physiological or phenotypical changes for desire traits. The genes will be incorporated into crop plants for overcoming the challenges and disease resistance. (3) I am also working on identification of molecular markers, mapping of quantitative traits loci (OTLs), plant tissue culture (somaclonal variation), induced-mutant screening of banana and okra (mutation induced by chemical and physical mutagens such as EMS, NaN₃, g-ray, CRISPR-Cas9 etc) for the development of disease resistant traits against virus or fungi. The research is expected to produce high quality, value-added and environmental friendly agricultural products that will reduce the need for chemicals/pesticides and help the sustainable development of agriculture & Health. I am using plant biochemistry, molecular biology, physiology, genetics, pathology and bioinformatics techniques to implement my research projects.

Specific Research interests but not limited to:

•  In vitro propagation of banana (Musa) and date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) for commercial propagation.

•  Isolation and characterization of plant pathogenic virus and fungi from fruit crop plants. Study the plant-pathogen (Plant-fungi or virus) interaction in banana, dateplam and okra.

•   Isolation, purification and characterization of biotic stress related proteins/enzymes from plants through biochemical techniques.

•  Identification, cloning and characterization of important genes (Resistant genes) that are contributing to virus or fungi resistance by transcriptomes/EST sequences analysis through next generation sequencing (NextGen-Seq), Real time-PCR and bioinformatics approach.

•  Generation of transgenic plants with of disease resistant genes into okra, banana, papaya etc. for crop improvements through Agrobacterium or Particle Bombardment methods.

•  Development of molecular markers (RAPD, SSR, SCAR & SNP) and identification of QTLs of banana, tomato, okra, papaya for identification and characterization of desirable traits that will be useful future breeding program.

•  Genetic improvement of okra for resistance to Yellow Vein Mosaic Virus and Enation leaf Curl Viruses through induced mutation breeding technology.

•  Genetic improvement of papaya for seedless traits, disease resistance to ring spot virus disease, Leaf Curl Viruses.

•  Production and commercialization of disease resistance/free (Panama disease, Sigatoka, BBTV) banana plantlets through tissue cultures with somaclonal variation.

•  Evolutionary analysis and 3D structure predicting, docking, structure-function studies of important plant proteins/enzymes through bioinformatics for crop improvement.

For more information about my current research, please visit the  following website

http://dept.ru.ac.bd/biochem/?p=2340

You can also  find Facebook page on Tissue Culture Banana at University of Rajshahi

Banana Tissue  Culture  Seedling at University of Rajshahi

Researchgate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Md_Anowar_Hossain2

Lab members:

    i) Faculty: Dr. Md. Anowar Hossain

                    Prof. Dr. Md. Rezaul karim-2

Student Supervision (Master & PhD thesis) and co-supervision:

1.     Md. Masud Rana (M. Sc. Thesis), 2012, Supervision, Rajshahi University, Bangladesh.

2.     Tanjila Mashhoor, (M. Sc. Thesis), 2013, Supervision, Rajshahi University, Bangladesh.

3.     Suk Phin (M. Sc. thesis), 2014, Co-supervision, UNIMAS, Malaysia.

4.     Mastura Sani (M. Sc. Thesis), 2014, Co-supervision, UNIMAS, Malaysia.

5.     Nurul Izzati (M. Sc. Thesis), 2015, Co-supervision, UNIMAS, Malaysia.

6.     Saiful Azom (M. Sc. Thesis), 2015, Co-supervision, UNIMAS, Malaysia.

7.     Kazi Muhammad Rezaul Karim (PhD Thesis), 2016, Co-supervision, UNIMAS, Malaysia.

8.     Md. Sajjad Hossain (M. Sc. Thesis), 2018, Supervision, Rajshahi University, Bangladesh

9.     Md. Abu Syem (M. Sc. Thesis), 2018, Supervision, Rajshahi University, Bangladesh

10.  Kazi Zahidur Rahman, PhD thesis, 2018, Supervision, Rajshahi University, Bangladesh.

11.  Md. Abdullah Omar Nasib, 2018, Supervision, Rajshahi University, Bangladesh.

12.  Md. Ahsan Habib, (M. Sc. Thesis), 2019, Supervision, Rajshahi University, Bangladesh

13.  Nasrin Akter, (M. Sc. Thesis), 2019, Supervision, Rajshahi University,

14.  Nasrin Naher, (M. Sc. Thesis), 2019, Supervision, Rajshahi University, Bangladesh

15.  Md. Nur-E-Sadid (M. Sc. Thesis), 2020, Supervision, Rajshahi University, Bangladesh

16.  Mst Mousumi Khatun, (M. Sc. Thesis), 2020, Supervision, Rajshahi University, Bangladesh

17.  Afroza Akter, (M. Sc. Thesis), 2020, Supervision, Rajshahi University, Bangladesh

18.     Mst Khadiza Khatun, (M. Sc. Thesis), 2021, Supervision, Rajshahi University, Bangladesh

19.     Md. Farhad Alam, (M. Sc. Thesis), 2021, Supervision, Rajshahi University, Bangladesh

22.     Mohd. Tanvir Haider Chowdhury, (M. Sc. Thesis), 2021, Supervision, Rajshahi University, Bangladesh

Presentation/conference abstracts or proceedings:

21. Md. Anowar Hossain* and Md. Rezaul Karim. Okra Cultivation in Bangladesh: Major Challenges and opportunities, 7th Annual South Asian Biosafety Conference-2019, held on September 14~16, 2019 at Westin, Dhaka. Plenary Speaker in Plenary Session-IV.

20. Md. Sajjad Hossen, Arifur Rahman Munshi, Md. Rezaul Karim and Md. Anowar Hossain*, Characterization of Yellow Vein Mosaic Virus of okra (Abelmoschus Esculentus L) in Bangladesh. held on May 2~3, 2019 at University of Rajshahi.  Poster Abstract #130

19. Nasrin Nahar Shanta, Farzana Parvin, Md.Rezaul Karim and Md. Anowar Hossain*, Effects of different concentrations of plant hormones on the micro-propagation of disease free Banana plantlets cv Sabri. held on May 2~3, 2019 at University of Rajshahi.  Poster Abstract #132.

18.Ahsan Habib, Md. Rezaul Karim, Kazi Zahidur Rahamn and Md. Anowar Hossain*.  Molecular Identification and characterization of Banana bunchy top virus from Rajshahi District, held on May 2~3, 2019 at University of Rajshahi.  Poster Abstract #128.

17. Arifur Rahman Munshi, Md Sajjad Hossen, Ahsan Habib, Md Rezaul karim and Md Anowar Hossain*, Morpho-molecular Characterization of Causal Agent of Panama Disease of Banana, held on May 2~3, 2019 at University of Rajshahi.  Poster Abstract #112.

16. Arifur Rahman Munshi, Md. Sajjad Hossen, Md. Abdullaha  Omar Nasib, Kazi Zahidur Rahman, Md. Rezaul Karim and Md. Anowar Hossain* Morpho-molecular Characterization of Pathogenic Fungi from Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus) from Rajshahi University Area. International Conference-2018 on Translational Research on Biochemistry for better life and sustainable development, University of Rajshahi, Bangladesh, Poster presentation, ID:46

15. Kazi Zahidur Rahman, Md. Rezaul Karim and Md. Anowar Hossain* Morphological, Biochemical and Nutritional Analysis of Ten Varieties of Okra Cultivated in Rajshahi University Campus. International Conference-2018 on Translational Research on Biochemistry for better life and sustainable development, University of Rajshahi, Bangladesh. Poster presentation, ID:47

14. Md. Sajjad Hossen, Arifur Rahman Munshi, Md. Abdullaha Omar Nasib, Kazi Zahidur Rahman, Md. Rezaul Karim and Md. Anowar Hossain*. Genetic diversity study of 23 varieties of okra by Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and Simple Sequence Repeat (SSR) markers. International Conference-2018 on Translational Research on Biochemistry for better life and sustainable development, University of Rajshahi, Bangladesh, Poster presentation, ID:45

13.  Md. Abdullaha Omar Nasib, Kazi Zahidur Rahman, Md. Sajjad Hossen , Arifur   Rahman Munshi, Dr. M. Shahjahan and Md. Anowar Hossain*. Germplasm Screening, Current Status and Molecular Characterization of Yellow Vein Mosaic Viral Disease of Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus) in Rajshahi Region, International Conference-2018 on Translational Research on Biochemistry for better life and sustainable development, University of Rajshahi, Bangaldesh, Poster presentation, ID:73

11. Kazi Zahidur Rahman, Md. Rezaul Karim and Md. Anowar Hossain*. Performance evaluation, biochemical and nutritional analysis of ten varieties of okra cultivated in Rajshahi University campus, Annual Plant tissue Culture & biotechnology Conference -2017, held in April 6-7, 2018 at Bangladesh Sugar Crops Research Institute (BSRI), Ishurdi, Pabna, Oral presentation, Id No:7

10. Md. Anowar Hossain*, From Sequences to Phylogenetic tree. Series lectures on Bioinformatics, held in December 18-20, 2017 at Organized by Department of Statistics, RU and BBCBA, University of Rajshahi, Bangladesh.

9. Md. Anowar Hossain*, Genetic Improvement of Okra for resistance to viral diseases. Invited speaker, An International workshop on Exploring synthetic biology for    enhanced plant production, held on February 16~17, 2017 in the University of    Liverpool, Liverpool, United kingdom.

8. Md. Anowar Hossain* and Yoshinobu Kimura, Molecular evolution and three-            dimensional structural insights of plant fucosidases, International Conference on             Bioinformatics and Biostatistics for Agriculture, Health and Environment, 20-23             January, 2017, Organized by Department of Statistics and BBCBA, University of             Rajshahi, Oral presentation, No:P037.

  7. Kazi Zahidur Rahman, Md. Rezaul Karim and Md. Anowar Hossain*, Performance of the five selected varieties of okra against Yellow Vein Mosaic Virus and Enation Leaf Curl             Virus, 8th International Plant Tissue Culture and Biotechnology Conference,             Dhaka, December 3-5, 2016, Poster presentation, No:17

      6. Md. Anowar Hossain and Hairul Azman Roslan*, Molecular characterization and    functional analysis of GH18 chitinases from sagu palm (Metroxylon sagu). 5th International Conference on Advancement in Science and Technology Frontiers in Biotechnology (iCAST2015), 10-12 August 2015, International Islamic University, Malaysia, Oral presentation, ID:P05.

5. Md. Anowar Hossain and Yoshinobu Kimura*. Molecular characterization and molecular modeling of plant a-mannosidase. Japanese Society for Bioscience, Biotechnology and Agrochemistry's (JSBBA)　Regional Conference-2010, September 25, held at Kagawa University, Kagawa prefecture, Japan. Oral presentation, Id:A-10

4. Md. Anowar Hossain, Ryohei Nakano, Kosuke Nakamura, Md. Tofazzal Hossain, and Yoshinobu Kimura*. Molecular characterization of two glycoenzymes involved in the N-glycoprotein degradation during tomato fruit ripening. International Conference “Bioactive Okayama-2010”, August 11-12, Okayama Prefectural University, Soja, Okayama, Japan. Oral presentation, Abstract ID:P-11

3. Md. Anowar Hossain, Ryohei Nakano, Kosuke Nakamura and Yoshinobu Kimura*. Molecular characterization of acidic a-mannosidase involved in turnover of N-glycoproteins in tomato (Lycopersicum esculentum) Fruits.  25^th International carbohydrate symposium (ICS2010), August 1-6, 2010, Tokyo, Japan, Poster presentation, Abstract ID:C-P5-046, Makuhari Messe International Convention Complex, Tokyo(Chiba), Japan.

2. Md. Anowar Hossain, Ryohei Nakano, Sho Sakamura, Kosuke Nakamura and Yoshinobu Kimura*. Molecular cloning, expression and functional characterization of Peptide:N-glycanase in Tomato fruits (Solanum lycopersicum).  Oral presentation, Id:A3a; Japanese Society for Bioscience, Biotechnology and Agrochemistry's Regional Conference-2008, September 19~20, held at Nagasaki University, Nagasaki, Japan.

1. Md. Anowar Hossain, Kosuke Nakamura, Yoshinobu Kimura*. Alpha-mannosidase involved in turnover of free N-glycans in developing tomato fruit (Lycopersicum esculentum). Oral presentation, ID: 3A07a07. Japanese Society for Bioscience, Biotechnology and Agrochemistry's Annual Conference-2008, March 26~29, Meijo University, Nagoya, Japan.

Awards, Fellowship, Honours and Achievements

8. JASSO Follow-up Fellowship in Okayama University, Japan from October 16, 2018~January 13, 2019.

7. Postdoctoral Research Fellowship from University Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) for two years November 2013-October 2015.

6. Postdoctoral Research Fellowship as visiting fellow in the Georgia Institute of Technology, USA. March 2011-June 2011.

5. Received “Best Presenter Award in the Symposium” in Bioactive Active Okayama-2010: An International Conference on Biologically Active Substances, held on August 11-12, 2010 in the Okayama Prefectural University, Soja, Okayama, Japan.

4. Received “Graduate student encouragement award-2010” from Japanese Society for Bioscience, Biotechnology and Agrochemistry (JSBBA).

3. Japanese Govt. Monbukagakusho (MEXT) Scholarship- 2007 for pursuing Doctoral course (Ph. D), Okayama University, Japan.

2. University Grant Commission Scholarship under Ministry of Education, Bangladesh Government for pursuing Master Course (M. Sc) in Biochemistry 1997.

1. Awarded Gold Medal for the best result in the B. Sc (Hons.) examination in 1994 from

Suhrawardy Hall, Rajshahi University, Bangladesh.

Professional Membership:

1.     Member of The American Phtyopathological Society from November 2021  to prosent 

2.     Member of an International Society for Horticultural Science from January 2020 to present.

3.     Life member of Biosafety and Biosecurity Associate of Bangladesh from 2016 to present

4.     Member of the Bangladesh Association of Plant tissue Culture & Biotechnology (BAPTC&B) from 2016 to present.

5.     Joint Secretary &  Life Member of Bioinformatics Research Groups of Rajshahi University (BioRGRU), Bangladesh from July 2016 to present.

6.     Member of Bangladesh Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (BSBMB), 2005 to present.

7.      Member of Graduate Biochemist Association (GBA), Bangladesh, 2006 to present.

8.      Member of Rajshahi University Biochemistry and Molecular biology Alumni Association (RUBAA), 2004 to present.

9.      Member of Bioinformatics Organization (www.bioinformatics.org) located at Hudson, Massachusetts, USA, 2010 to present.

10.    Member of Global Network of Bangladeshi Biotechnology (GNOBB), Bangladesh, 2006 to present.

11.    Japanese Society for Bioscience, Biotechnology and Agrochemistry (JSBBA), 2007~2010.