Biophysical Reality and Future Technologies |
Home - Back to Authors work in Biotechnology The Seed that Changed My Life Seed a Wonder Tool for Applied Research A way to manipulate biological information to human advantage This was an
accidental discovery - a path nature revealed to my questioning process. It
occurred during the initial period of my research career when I was trying to
clone some highly difficult commercial plants.
I had failed to elicit any results and I was totally frustrated. I had no
body to fallback for support and guidance. Just when I was about give up,
Mother Nature called me. I developed a strange form of communication with nature
that led me to reviewing everything I am doing. Looking back on my work, I found
that what I am trying to do in the lab is to find the internal secrets of plants
system. The perquisite to my success lies in developing a media and
microenvironment that supports the plant system in hand. In nature, I could
clearly sense an instinct among living system to survive. I realized that I am
trying to exploit this survival instinct. Once in my farm, my searching senses landed on a
germinating Cashew seed and I was astonished at the rate of growth it produces once the germination
was induced. I also noted the immense power in it to handle the stress force.
This observation is related to stored food and hormones in the system to
facilitate growth. This led me to conduct a curious experiment. I cut off the shoot, root meristems in germinating seed of cashew, and maintained it in a moist environment. My argument was that since the plants are toti-potent, the circumstances should lead to a situation where some cells with in the system should regenerate, shoot or root meristem or dedifferentiate to form embryoid which in turn would give rise to shoot and root meristem. My argument turned right. Within in few days large number of shoots emerged from the axil of the cotyledons and a ring of roots appeared at the cut end. See fig. Its known that leafs are the primary source of production of hormones cytokinins and Auxins. The auxins produced in the leaf move towards the earth to the root tip and cytokinins move against it to the shoot tip. So naturally my second childish question was, can the shoots produce its own root, I tilted the glass so that the axis of the shoot stand apart from the axis of the mother seed. I was expecting the plants in the corner of the axis to produce roots at its base. My thinking turned correct and I could isolate many plants from the seed and transfer them to soil. Later it was found that these shoots could be easily rooted in the in the lab or can be made to root directly in soil in a controlled glass house conditions.
The section studies
showed that they emerged from single cells. The initial development showed a
tendency to form embryoid, [ See third slide above] but quickly yields to
axial force of the
parental system and its survival instinct, adding new shoots and roots to the
whole system. This curious manipulation
and observation was a
turning point, which led me to explore the dynamics of living system and explore
seed as dynamic system of immense potential for application. It is beyond this
article to explore it at length. I hope to add them to the site as time permits.
However, let me share some important and fundamental points. 1] It was noted that the number of roots and shoots appearing on the left and right axil of the system were never equal and there appeared a relationship with the shoot and root formation in opposite way. That is if the shoots formation was good in the left axis then the root formation is good in the right side of the cut end of the hypocotyl end suggesting a balancing aspect going on in the system. This was noted to be true in root and shoot distribution and its branching pattern in space in the plant systems in general in nature. In fact the branching pattern of root and shoot could give information of past and present circumstances in which the system grows. 2] In the above seed model when I tilted the axis against the axis of the gravitational force the tendency to form a ring of roots appeared disrupted and split up and the shoots began to fuse as if a spiral wave force exist in the column. Thus this seed began give me physical vision of biological system Note - this picture arose form large number off experimentations. The wave dynamics of the system is sensitive and influenced by many factors. Reader would understand this statement when we understand the the life and is functioning discovered from the system point of view
Most of these experiments were conducted out side the laboratory. Later I shifted the model as a tool to evaluate the influence of various chemicals on the system, so that I could perceive a appropriate medium for tissue culture of the plant. The observation was elaborate, from a birds eye view of it, they also begin to speak some tendency - a definite non linear phenomenon within life. 3] Use of hormone reduced the tendency to form roots at the hypocotyl and the tendency to form embryoid and independent plants increased. In other words the chemical were showing the physical phenomenon that resulted in complete plant - the distancing of the axis of the mother plant induces the newly differentiating cells to go the independent way of embryoid formation. In short my observation led me to discover two principal forces that control the plant system. One is against gravity [anti-gravity] and the other with gravity . See fig
I noted that all
living system by instinct are anti-gravitational. This becomes evident when
we apply second law of thermodynamics to living system and material system. From the observation I started to visualize two spiral waves moving in opposite direction one being dominant the other being recessive. It is a evident fact that shoot and flower growth occurs during the night and maximizes with dawn and the opposite is true for root. In other words against the cyclic change day and night cycle a flipping in the direction of flow occurs in plant system. In
all the different type of plant seeds I explored, I observed the principal force
that is first expressed is the Anti gravitational force that is manifested as
shoot meristem growing against gravity. The root meristem has a supporting role.
The growth of shoot is supported by a phase of root growth.
In other words the root
and shoot growth alternates. I started to visualize my experimental tool as double spiral axis, which is capable of producing many double spiral axis cohering into one or differentiating into many. Thus a seed of "Physics of biology" or "Biophysical Reality" began to take root in me. This was supported by observation in nature, where I was seeing spirality every where suggesting some fundamental double spirality guiding the whole phenomena of nature. I began to visualize dedifferentiation which I was attempting in order to clone plants as simply a process of compression of the system to certain near critical state and holding it there giving the system time to react and survive [ differentiation] The traditional tissue culturist speak of a unique medium, arrived at by permutation and combination as the secret way to differentiate a system. From the random design approach I adopted to clone coconut later adopted for all tissue culture work [taking a leaf from nature], I realized there are different paths [combination of medium ] to the same goal. Everything in the end becomes deducible to appropriate stress. This meant that the whole process of dedifferentiation and differentiation can be induced by many other mechanical means than total dependence of hormones. Everything should in end should transform and translate into some winding force. Back tracking my experimental tool [the seed] to its root stage [ embryo] and beyond it. I began visualize some particle behind life whose motion is producing the spiral wave around which the system is growing. This particle probably is working as a drill displacing matter and force to the opposite. It was a stupid thinking in this way - but my search to know the truth of nature slowly began to uphold the vision. This thus became the starting point for the System Design ,Unification Theory and Biophysical Reality. A flurry of applied possibilities which centered around handling the whole system at the seed level and various other levels to increase productivity and resistance to the pest etc came up, but I had to over look them in order to seek the fundamentals. The human mind
in me
saw many possibilities to exploit the above observation 1] As
a model to study
the mechanical force at work in biological system. 2] As a model to
study the effect of various chemicals on particular system, such that time taken
to determine suitable medium and hormones for particular system could be drastically
reduced. 3] As a model to
invent new chemicals that produces auxin and cytokinin effect in plant system. 4] A model to
develop stress resistant variety very quickly 5] A model to
develop quickly and safely genetically altered plants. [ A small project written about it submitted US National Science Foundation Resulted in invitation to join a US University. I could not submit my thesis it meant I should join the university as under graduate. One experience of being exploited led me to resist the invitation. Importantly the call of the fundamentals was too strong for me to deviate into a small branch and sacrifice the freedom of search] 6] To promote the growth of
embryoids, which differentiated in the tissue culture but are failing
to grow in the medium. 7] To develop hybrid
embryos when the seed fails to support its growth and so on [The plant obtained in the above manner was successfully transferred to the soil. It formed the basis for obtaining a huge funding to the lab from the government and getting recognition to the Lab. After I left the lab, I saw the human greed for fame name manifesting at its highest level both cheating oneself and the whole world. I witnessed my work presented to public by a cabinet minister. The national dailies carried the picture of cabinet minister transferring the plant obtained in the above manner to the field, with much fanfare as if a milestone is achieved in cloning cashew through tissue culture. The real potential of the work remained with me for want of out lets to explore. Being preoccupied with Unification Theory I could not divert my attention to it. ] |
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