Kathmandu, February 22:

Fluctuating power supply is adversely affecting the invaluable stock of DNA samples in the Nepal Agricultural Research Council.

Prolonged load shedding is likely cause much loss to some 500 DNA of indigenous breed of crops and vegetation and more than 10,000 samples of seeds at the Biotechnology Unit of the NARC. “Nepal can not afford the loss of these genes,” Dr Bindeshwar Prasad Sah, senior scientist at the unit told this daily.

“The loss has not yet been quantified,” he added. The DNA should be stored at -20 degree Celsius while the samples should be stored at four to five degree Celsius. The temperature of the growth room should be maintained at 26 degree Celsius with 70 per cent humidity all the time. It is similar to operation theatre. We have to work at sterile environment for which we need uninterrupted power,” he said.

“The Botany Pathology Division has already lost 25 of trichoderma (fungal isolates), an organism that controls soil health. The NARC had a store of 30 isolates which were tested and isolated in a lab in the UK this year. The soil samples were collected from different parts of the country, which took a lot of time and money,” he said. “There are a number of rare antibiotics, chemicals and enzymes sensitive to environment that need to be preserved under controlled (artificial) environment,” said Yubaraj Kandel, a scientist at the division.

He informed that they have not been able to examine the disease samples brought to the lab by farmers from different part of the country because the microscope do not function in absence of electricity. “Once the pathogene is identified, it should be isolated then it is kept in incubation,” Kandel said adding that the farmers who visit the lab return disappointed.