Department Of Cell Population Genetics
|
Head
Professor Victor A. Kunakh, Dr.Sci.,
Corresponding member of NASU
Phone: (380-44) 526-07-98;
Fax: (380-44) 526-07-59;
E-mail: kunakh@imbg.org.ua |
The main area of research is:
Investigation of peculiarities, determinants, mechanisms and regulation of
structural and functional genome variability in the populations of cultered
plant cells
Development of the genetic basis for plant biotechnologies.
Ongoing projects and recent achievements:
- Structural organisation of chromatin, peculiarities of DNA variability
during dedifferentiation and morphogenesis of plant cells are being studied.
- Search for molecular and genetic markers of the potentiality for
morphogenesis and regeneration of plants in vitro is in progress.
- Department has generated unique high productive strains of rare medicinal
plants such as Rauwolfia serpentina, Panax ginseng, Rhodiola rosea (golden
root), the producents of important cardio vascular alkaloids, immunomodulating
glycosides, and other compounds.
- Development of anti-mutagenic and gene-protective preparations of plant
origin, based on cultured cell extracts, and the systems of their fast screening
is in progress.
- A new test system "Escherichia coli - bacteriophage λ has been devised to
study the effect of plant preparations on the level of induced mutations.
Selected publications:
- Andreev I.O., Spiridonova K.V., Kunakh V.A., Reorganisation of plant genome
in vitro. // Biopolymers and cell. - 2004.- V.20, ¹ 1-2. p. 42-49.
- Andreev I.O., Spiridonova K.V., Kunakh V.A., Solov'an V.T. Ageing and loss
of germination power of rye seeds are accompanied by the reduction in nuclear
DNA fragmentation at loop domains boundaries. // Plant physiology, 2004. - V.51,
¹ 2. p. 269-277.
- Kunakh V.A., Mozhilevskaya L.P., Adonin V.I., Gubar S.I. Productivity and
genetic structure of cell populations of ginseng in culture // Biotechnology,
2003. - ¹ 3, p. 25-35.
- Melnichuk M.D., Novak T.V., Kunakh V.A., Plant biotechnology - Poligraphconsulting, 2003. - p. 520.
