Plant Biotechnology

Plant Biotechnology Laboratory

Many research projects and thesis studies are carried out in the Plant Biotechnology Laboratory, which is supported by various TÜBİTAK and TÜBAP projects within the Department of Genetics and Bioengineering and brought to the department with the support of TRAGEN R&D Company.

Currently ongoing projects in our new Laboratory:

TÜBİTAK-1001 - "Functional Analysis of Wheat Brown Rust (Puccinia Triticina Erics) Effector Candidates Using the Higs Method" within the scope of Research Project Support

TÜBİTAK-1505 - "Genetic Characterization in Sunflower and Development of Parent Lines and Hybrids Suitable for Market Demands" within the scope of University-Industry Cooperation Support Program

TÜBİTAK-1002 - "RNAi-Mediated Functional Analysis of Wheat Yellow Rust (Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici) Effector Candidate Gene" by the Rapid Support Program

 
 






Plant Biotechnology Studies
The Plant Biotechnology Group, run by Prof. Dr. Yalçın KAYA, Prof. Dr. Semra HASANÇEBİ and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Necmi BEŞER, carries out agricultural biotechnology studies and R&D activities for all plant products, especially the important agricultural products of our region. These activities include species and variety determination, determination of purity and quality-yield characteristics in seeds and market products, marker-assisted selection, disease-resistance and molecular biology, tissue culture and gene cloning studies related to various agricultural characteristics.


Molecular breeding studies are carried out on "Sunflower", one of the important products of our region, within the scope of developing varieties that are resistant to regional pests and have high oil quality. Our projects carried out for this purpose in our department, which was established in 2014, have received support from TÜBİTAK and our University's research fund. International conferences have also been held in the field of sunflower. Our department has the "Sunflower World Collection Garden", which contains almost all wild species of sunflower.


One of the most important economic values of the Thrace Region is paddy. 55% of the production in our country is provided from our region. Therefore, the plant biotechnology group has completed a project to identify all rice varieties in our country and genetically identify the products in the market. The project supported by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry makes a significant contribution to the protection of producers and consumers. In addition, our group continues its molecular biology and biotechnology studies on disease resistance and agricultural characteristics in rice.


Another important economic value of our region is wheat, 13% of the production in our country is carried out in our region. Our department carries out tissue culture and molecular biology studies to develop wheat varieties that are resistant to diseases and pests and have high yield and quality characteristics, both in molecularly assisted breeding and in elucidating cellular mechanisms.


The Thrace region is also a remarkable region in terms of biodiversity and endemic species. Our group carries out studies to detect, record and protect the biodiversity of our country, especially the Thrace Region. For this purpose, our molecular taxonomy projects carried out with DNA barcoding and different molecular tools are supported by TÜBİTAK and different funds.



In addition, our group conducts tissue culture and cloning studies to determine the biotechnological production and biological effects of valuable compounds produced by plants and used in various fields, especially in medicine.