World's First Theme Garden on "Plant Tissue Culture"

PLANT TISSUE CULTURE LABORATORY
GKVK, UAS Bangalore

Life, with its evolution, manifestation and continuity, in many rightful ways is in itself a moving piece of art as well. This melodrama has always been an ever so fascinating object of the human perception and undoubtedly an inseparable sensory elixir of life for eras and millennia! With the garish modernization and shifts in the living habitats of all life forms and concernedly humans, this instinctive urge and necessity to be a part of nature has been so intense that man has been constantly, through the ages, seeking a portal that can fill that void within. This portal is what we now understand as landscapes and gardens.

Landscaping in its true sense is recreation of nature in miniature. For centuries man has been nursing ideas of recreating nature with different perceptions but in vain. Depiction of nature with

all its subtleties and intricacies is most akin to chasing a mirage that can only be perceived but never achieved. Collection of plants and combination of a few random objects merely put forth a cheap imitation and proves a common saying that goes, "Summing up the parts does not make it whole!" This is so because nature is not just a three dimensional spatial arrangement of plants, rocks and objects but the harmonious interaction of each and every aspect of nature including wind, water, sounds, birds and animals; the whole phenomenon in its entirety.

With vast and fast disappearance of wild and natural living spaces, the abhorred man has never given up his quest to patch up the gaping mauls that scream the absence of nature. This

haste obviously brings out only his desperateness rather than his creative acumen which is seen translated into the numerous, so called, gardens.

Garden in an expression of one's self or thought. To be fair for the tenets of gardening, creation of any garden should always be based on a Theme. The theme chosen here is the science of plant tissue culture. Great poems just happen but never been created with a chalked out time schedule. Thoughts and feelings occurring in a poets mind find its expression in his poems. As great poetry is not created on a scheduled sitting, so does the thoughts on creating this theme garden. Hence the composition of this theme garden is an amalgamation of thoughts which have occurred over a period of time

This master piece from an artist Mr. Jagannath jakkepalli, signifying the capacity of survivability of a living organism, is best expressed in plants, manifested in their cellular ability to regenerate into a whole new organism precisely the 'Totipotency' of plant cells. A tree felled is shown to have an undying spirit of life; hence new shoots have sprung up from cells of senescing stub of a tree. The artist has also given a great message of eternal peace and happiness the humankind derives when he respects and recognizes this great virtue of plants which go on to nurture and protect the mankind.

The concept of totipotency stemmed from the vision and wisdom which emanated from the experiences of Dr. Gottlieb Haberlandt's work with culture of tissues under laboratory conditions. For his pioneering works paving the way for tissue culture research he is rightfully recognized as 'The father of plant tissue culture'The bust created (by Mr.Jagannath jakkepalli) is yet another master piece, as the sculpted face and posture of the scientist is very true to the majestic persona of the man that was! This bust placed in the garden against the backdrop of crimson bougainvilleas is indeed an absolute splendor to watch.

To make the garden setting a bit unique, a canopy of unconventional shape was erected resting on an interesting structure of a pillar. Showing the DNA replicating as it finds its way up, would be the perfect setting. For all we know the Replication in DNA is the mother of all activity leading to growth and development. It is surely a forerunner to regeneration and the central axis of our Plant Tissue Culture Laboratory activities.

Wonderfully modeled, Dr. Watson and Dr. Crick (1952) modeled as small statured was a deliberate attempt to show that their discovery had grown beyond their imagination. We have placed them in front of their structure marveling at their discovery growing beyond their imagination to gigantic proportions controversies withstanding, and threatening to stretch the very frontiers of science as we know today. The expressions on their faces brought out remarkably by the artists (Prof. Venkatesh, Prof Nagappa and Mr. Sukesh) should be seen to be believed. It's such a wonderful experience in itself.

Well, being tissue culturists, if at all we are envious of some scientists, those have to be Dr.Murashige and Prof. Skoog, for they are unconditionally cited in all the research papers pertaining to plant tissue culture published so far since 1962! Mind boggling? We agree. Prof Skoog and Murashige are modeled and intentionally presented in a way to depict the Professor and his student deep in discussion over an issue. This is an honest attempt to emphasize the importance of such discussion which are waning owing to paucity of time with a professor as he is burdened with loads of non academic works and also made to run pillar to post, caught in the maze of bureaucratic hurdles. Expression of Murashige as a student and the majestic appeal of Murashige as a Professor is just endearing to those who could witness.

Deciphering the double helix was the twist of the key that opened up a Pandora 's Box along with the doors to newer avenues in bio-technology. Its application and their implications have been growing exponentially ever since, attaining epidemic proportions. This leaves us with one menacingly stark question staring in the eye – What next? And the reflection of this philosophy is fused to a form called- D.N.A., Man and Earth?

Thank You

We strongly hope that this endeavor of ours has been a connotative experience. However the pursuit of perfecting the nuances of the gardening philosophy would never seem complete without the invaluable inputs from the ones who matter the most – People. After all it is them that we extend our dedication and service to.

It certainly will be a great contribution to this noble cause if you can give a few minutes of your precious time to convey us what you feel, in the questionnaire below. We are immensely thankful for your kind concern and thoughtful reciprocation.

Charan .A

Photograph Courtesy Dr. B.N.Sathyanarayana. Powered By Sapta Technologies