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Dr Sanju A. Sanjaya received a PhD in 2003 from the University of Mysore, Mysore, India, on tree improvement and biotechnology. That same year, he joined the Agricultural Biotechnology Research Center at Academia Sinica, in Taipei, Taiwan as a postdoctoral fellow working on the genetic engineering of orchids and tomatoes, for biotic and abiotic stress tolerance. He has worked at the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center at Michigan State University as a Senior Research Associate on a project focused on increasing energy density in vegetative tissues. His credentials include three patent applications, 20 papers in refereed journals, six published book chapters and eight published reviews.

Dr Sanjayas lab leads an active research program to design photosynthetic organisms with enhanced bioenergy and industrial compounds for higher production, profitability and sustainability. Dr Sanjayas research group uses bioinformatics, biochemical, molecular, cell biology and genetic engineering approaches to understand the primary metabolism mechanisms in plants and microalgae. Dr Sanjayas lab also aims to advance the use of photosynthetic organisms to address water quality issues and phytoremediation.

The West Virginia State University Energy and Environmental Science Institute (WVSUEESI) mission is to conduct basic and applied interdisciplinary research in energy and the environment to generate technology and knowledge.

Our goal is to partner with public and private sectors, so we can work together to address pertinent energy and environmental issues for West Virginia, says WVSUEESI Director, Dr Sanjaya. Those issues include researching the feasibility and sustainability of alternative energy sources for the Mountain State as government regulation and environmental concerns continue to cast resources such as natural gas and coal in the national spotlight.

Those new energy sources include renewable resources from plant-based biomass. Scientists at WVSU conduct ongoing projects focusing on feedstock improvement, biofuels and bioproducts; genomics; bioremediation, environment and sustainability. One project involves increasing the production of plant oils in the biomass of bioenergy crops that can be used to produce biodiesel and replanted onto formerly mined areas to determine how well crops will grow on reclaimed land.

One of the goals of the WVSUEESI is to generate technologies and provide hands-on research opportunities to students and science-based outreach opportunities for K-12 youth; Research and Teaching Graduate Assistantships in the MS Biotechnology Program; the Research Rookies Program in energy-related research; Agricultural and Environmental Science Careers for Non-Traditional Students (AESCONTS) throughout the region in the hope of generating the tomorrows scientists.

Ive always wanted to progress professionally and academically and to enrich my previous experience working with energy and environmental science, Dr Sanjaya explains. One of my biggest interests in being at WVSU is the opportunity to work in a team, with hard-working and smart students and scientific community.

Dr Sanjaya hopes the research will ultimately attract industry and academic partners to the region, enhancing economic development and workforce opportunities.

In addition to his ambitious research, Dr Sanjaya is a true leader in the classroom at WVSU who enjoys interacting with and motivating his students. He goes on to provide further detail: I often bring my students to the lab to do the real work theyre learning about in the classroom. Its a different opportunity for learning because my research is very hands-on.

Ever the visionary, Dr Sanjaya not only hopes his research will motivate West Virginians to stay in the State, but he looks forward to the day that young people will flock to West Virginia to work in science and research.

Dr Sanjaya adds: If my research is even a small piece of the puzzle that helps West Virginia, then I am happy.

As we enter an era where global food production is likely to double as the human population increases, sharing prime agricultural lands and resources for food and energy production becomes an even greater challenge. A breakthrough technology that enables the cultivation of an energy crop on a vast area of marginal lands can address these issues. Dr Sanjaya uses a gene-editing technique called CRISPR that gives him the ability to alter genes in plants, enabling them to grow on mountainous terrain, in soil with low nutrients, and even under drought conditions. This research is considered cutting edge, but has already proven viable in other parts of the world.

Dr Sanjaya then turns the discussion towards current research when it comes to improving the nutritional and energy content of crops. Dr Sanjaya considers why this is necessary for society today and how this incorporates gene technology.

Currently, the majority of the oils used in biodiesel production come from the seeds of plants, Dr Sanjaya comments. Biodiesel is a form of diesel fuel derived from plants or animals. By increasing the energy provided by plants, the land required to grow both biodiesel and food crops could be significantly reduced, he adds.

Plants accumulate oils within the tissue of the seeds to help with the energy-intensive process of germination and growth of new seedlings. By harnessing the mechanism used by the plant to send and store these oils within the seeds, Dr Sanjaya and his team aim to create new breeds of plants that accumulate higher amounts of oils within the rest of the plants vegetative tissue the leaves, stems and roots.

To increase the amount of oils stored in the vegetative tissue of plants, Dr Sanjaya and his colleagues have taken a two-pronged approach. Plants can only capture a finite amount of carbon in any period, so increasing the amount of oils created and stored necessarily requires a reduction in the amount of starch being produced.

First, the researchers used advanced molecular techniques to manipulate the genes involved in producing and accumulating oils called triglycerides using the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. This flowering plant species is related to mustard, cabbage and radishes and is ideal for testing and refining genetic techniques because of its small size and short generation times.

By increasing the activity of a gene controlling seed oil production, Dr Sanjayas team created a version of the plant that tends to store these oils within the vegetative tissue.

Following this, the team focused on a gene involved in starch production. They found that when this gene was edited to exhibit decreased activity, more carbon was left available to be routed into the production of oils. The resulting plant that possesses both edited genes divides more of the carbon captured during photosynthesis into oils than into starch.

Our long-term goal is to develop energy-dense bioenergy crops that can grow on vast areas of reclaimed coal mine lands of West Virginia and the Appalachian coal basin, Dr Sanjaya comments.

Ultimately, he says, this work could bring sustainable agriculture and sustainable energy-related industry to the State.

FUNDING: USDA NIFA and NSF RIA

Please note: This is a commercial profile

2019. This work is licensed under aCC BY 4.0 license.

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The report on Genetic Engineering Plant Genomics Market aims to provide introductions of the market With latest launches, recent mergers, collaboration with others for promoting the product recently launched, their market revenue and valuation in different regions.The report analyses and evaluates the important industry trends, market size, market share estimates, and sales volume with which Genetic Engineering Plant Genomics industry can speculate the strategies to increase return on investment (ROI). This business report presents comprehensive explanation of market definition, market segmentation, competitive analysis and key developments in theGenetic Engineering Plant Genomics industry.

Competitive Landscape :

The report mentions various industry leaders focusing on researches for maintaining their leading position in the market post pandemic.The report provides snapshots and briefings of key strategies of the companies, which products they offer, their dominating regional presence, their competitors, and their strategies to grow post COVID-19 due slow growth expected by experts. Furthermore, the report also mentions the key growth insights, companies market presence, years of operations, technological aspects, financial strength, geographical presence, etc. Thus, with the report, the market players and stake holders get an outlook about the developing companies for investment opportunities help build their assets.

Market Overview:

Genetic engineering plant genomics refer to the process of development of new plant lines with enhanced genotypic characteristics by crossing two or more plants with the purpose of producing an offspring that shares the required traits of the parent plants. The aim of the method is to characterize, sequence and study of genetic compositions, functions and networks of entire plant genome. The technological advancement is emerging with the increasing demand for better-quality crops.The genetic engineering plant genomics market is expected to witness market growth at a rate of approximately 7.90% in the forecast period of 2021 to 2028. Data Bridge Market Research report on genetic engineering plant genomics market provides analysis and insights regarding the various factors expected to be prevalent throughout the forecast period while providing their impacts on the markets growth. The increasing application of genomics in plant breeding across the globe is escalating the growth of genetic engineering plant genomics market.The increasing demand for improved crop varieties and high quality crop, and surge in plant genome funding fueling the adoption of innovative technologies act as the major factors driving the genetic engineering plant genomics market.

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Top Players In Genetic Engineering Plant Genomics Industry :

The major players covered in the genetic engineering plant genomics market report are Eurofins Scientific, Illumina Inc, NRGene, Neogen Corporation, Agilent, LC Sciences.LLC, Traitgenetics GmbH, Keygene, Novogene Co.Ltd, GeneWiz, BGI, Genotypic Technology, ADAMA, Bayer AG, UPL, Corteva, Zhejiang Xinan Chemical Industrial Group Co., Ltd, Nufarm, DuPont, Syngenta AG, VILMORIN & CIE, Corteva, SUNTORY HOLDINGS LIMITED among other domestic and global players. Market share data is available for global, North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific (APAC), Middle East and Africa (MEA) and South America separately. DBMR analysts understand competitive strengths and provide competitive analysis for each competitor separately.

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Table of Contents of Genetic Engineering Plant Genomics Market Report:

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Market Landscape

Five Forces Analysis

Market Segmentation by Product

Geographic Landscape

Vendor Analysis

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Genetic Engineering Plant Genomics Market- Investment Opportunities With Recent Trends, COVID-19 Impact And Top Players Revenue- Eurofins Scientific,...

Are you happy? is a deceptively complex question to both ask and answer.

Its generally understood that having enough money to cover your needs and wants can help you live a relatively happy, comfortable lifeand recent research shows this relationship may increase linearly as income levels grow, as well.

However, theres much more to it than that. Happiness levels depend not just on financial security, but also broader perceptions of ones social support, personal freedom, and more.

This series of map pulls data from the World Happiness Report to uncover the average scores of 149 countries between 2018-2020, and which ones emerged the happiest or unhappiest. We also look at the most and least improved countries in every region.

First, lets look at the factors used to calculate world happiness levels. Some clear indicators are health and wealth, both metrics that have been steadily on the rise worldwide. The report takes these into account, weighting GDP per capita and life expectancy at birth into the scores.

The report also looks at more intangible aspects, collecting survey responses around:

This year, there was a natural focus on the negative affect measure of the COVID-19 pandemic on happiness levels, such as exacerbating mental health risks. In addition, such measurements varied depending on each countrys response to the crisis.

Worldwide happiness comes in at an average score of 5.5, a marginal improvement since our previous coverage of this report in 2019. Lets dive into regional outlooks for happiness levels.

Current Mood: Happy (6.1)

Canada retains its spot as the happiest country in North America, although its overall global ranking has dropped over the years. In 2019, it was ranked in ninth place globally, dropping to 11th in the 2020 edition, and declining further to 14th place in this years report.

Haiti continues to fare poorly as the unhappiest in the region, with an average annual GDP growth of only 1.3% over 20 years. Its weak economy and political instability have been worsened by the pandemicsetting back efforts to reduce poverty and widening inequality.

Current Mood: Content (5.9)

With the largest middle class in the Americas60% of its populationand a miniscule 0.1% extreme poverty rate, Uruguay is the happiest South American country. The nation has also achieved equitable access to basic services, from education to electricity.

The trio of Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela are experiencing different stages of progress in happiness levels, but their relationship is very much interdependent.

Venezuela and Ecuador face similar economic challenges and sharp declines in oil prices. Venezuela is additionally acutely affected by socio-political unrest, triggering a mass exodus of citizens to Ecuador and Colombia alike. The silver lining is that the influx of highly-educated Venezuelan migrants may provide a 2% boost to Ecuadors GDP.

Colombia, the most improved country, has halved its poverty rate in the last decade. In addition, it has welcomed almost 2 million Venezuelan migrants as of Dec 2020and plans to provide them up to 10 years of protective status.

Current Mood: Happy (6.4)

Finland remains at the top of the leaderboard as the worlds happiest country. This years ranking was also influenced by high levels of trust in the way the COVID-19 pandemic was handled.

Meanwhile, the shock of the COVID-19 crisis is expected to be short-lived in Croatia, which is the most improved country. This is partly due to its steady pre-pandemic economic gains, although risks remain.

In the unhappiest country of Ukraine, conflicts continue to cause stress on its politics, security, and economy. In particular, government corruption remains a big public issue.

Current Mood: Its Complicated (5.3)

Saudi Arabia is the most improved country in the region, as it continues to reduce its oil dependence, diversify its economy, and bolster its public services. It has also been making some progress towards gender equality.

The tourism and hospitality industries contribute nearly 20% of Jordans GDPand COVID-19 has caused a prolonged economic decline in the country along with the headwinds of these industries.

Although Afghanistan has seen improvements in access to basic services and its agricultural economy, challenges remain with prolonged conflict and violence. A post-pandemic recovery in the worlds unhappiest country might take several years.

Current Mood: Neutral (5.5)

Both New Zealand and Taiwan saw a successful COVID-19 response and recovery boosting their positions in the global happiness rankings. In fact, New Zealand was the only non-European country to make it into the top 10 on the global happiness list.

Note: As the report only covers 149 countries, Oceania only refers to Australia and New Zealand in this instance.

Although India remains the unhappiest country in the region, it also showed the most improvement overall, possibly due to its increased access to basic services. Notably though, the pandemic caused a sharp economic contraction in real GDP by 23.9% year-over-year in Q12021.

Current Mood: Unhappy (4.5)

In July 2020, the island nation of Mauritius joined Seychelles to become the second high-income country in Africa, helping cement its status as the happiest in the region.

Zambia, the most improved African country, has one of the worlds youngest populations by median agewhich presents long-term opportunities for labor force participation.

On the flip side, agriculturally-reliant Benin struggles with high poverty, with close to 40% of the population living below $1.90 per day.

Zimbabwe, the unhappiest country, has been through not just natural disasters but financial disasters too. It experienced hyperinflation of 786% in May 2020, accompanied by an equally sharp rise in food prices.

Although each country has been uniquely impacted by the pandemic, its clear that on the whole, happiness levels take into account so much more. How will future rankings look like in a post-pandemic world?

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Mapped: Happiness Levels Around the World in 2021 - Visual Capitalist

Turns out, males do have a purpose and yes, it is about sex.

According to a new study, published in Evolution Letters, the male seed beetle helps purge bad mutations and retain good genes through strict competition and sexual selection, increasing the long-term genetic health of a population.

The researchers, led by Karl Greishop of the University of Toronto, Canada, studied 16 genetic strains of the seed beetle (Callosobruchus maculatus) in an intensive breeding program to see how deleterious mutations ones that wont kill you, but might affect health and ability to reproduce affected both males and females.

They found that deleterious mutations affected males more than females, but that this actually increased the genetic population as a whole.

Our study shows that production of males, which may engage in intense competition for the chance to mate, enables faster purging of deleterious mutations from the population, which could thereby enable a healthier set of genes and higher reproductive capacity relative to asexual reproduction, says David Berger of Uppsala University, Sweden.

Read more: The long-term effects of sexual competition

In essence, male beetles with stronger genes outcompeted the males with bad mutations, which were unable to have as many babies and couldnt pass on bad beetle genes that well. The same effect wasnt seen in females, which had just as many babies and were able to pass on deleterious mutations.

This indicates that although these mutations do have a detrimental effect on females reproduction, they are more effectively removed from the population by selection acting on male carriers rather than female carriers, says Grieshop.

Previous research from our group and others has succeeded in showing this effect by artificially inducing mutations, but this is the first direct evidence that it ensues for naturally occurring variants of genes.

That meant that male beetles were responsible for purging bad genes from the mutations, purely because they couldnt pass them on, and the genetically stronger male beetles ended up impregnating more female on their behalf, without the population diminishing.

Read more: Water beetles mate to an evolutionary standstill

When deleterious mutations are purged from a population through rigorous selection in males, resulting in fewer males reproducing, the process can take place with little or no effect on population growth, says Greishop.

This is because relatively few males suffice to fertilise all the females in a population, hence whether those females are fertilised by few males or many males makes little or no difference to the number of offspring those females can produce, especially in species where the male doesnt look after its own offspring.

By contrast, such rigorous selection in females would result in fewer females reproducing, hence fewer offspring produced, which could lead to a massive population decline or even extinction.

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Passing on the good beetle genes - Cosmos Magazine