PUP deposits first gene sequences in GenBank

The Polytechnic University of Philippines is the latest of only a handful of Philippine universities that have contributed to the GenBank.

In an article published in the university’s web site, Jan Bernel Padolina reported that the team implementing the project LAMP (Loop-mediated isothermal amplification) Detection Assays for Anthracnose, Stem-end Rot, and Scab Disease Pathogens in Philippine ‘Carabao’ Mango have “successfully deposited and published ITS 1-2 (Internal Transcribed Spacer 1 — 2) gene sequences of Lasiodiplodia sp. isolates to the GenBank.” The said sequences were obtained from the DNA of Lasiodiplodia sp. found to be the “causative fungi of stem-end rot disease in Philippine mango.”

Padolina is the University Research Associate of the Joint Japan Society for Promotion of Science, Department of Science and Technology, Joint Research Program and the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development and the PUP project for the development of LAMP primers for Anthracnose and Stem-End-Rot disease of Carabao Mango. He is an alumnus of the university’s BS Biology program and currently taking his MS degree in Biochemistry with minors in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology in UP Los Baños.

GenBank is an international open access database for nucleotide sequences and their protein translations. It is managed by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) based in Bethesda, Maryland, USA.

Aside from PUP, the other Philippine universities that have contributed gene sequences to the GenBank are the University of the Philippines, University of Santo Tomas, De La Salle University and Ateneo de Manila University.