Dr Lalji Singh - CCMB

F. INFORMATION ON AND RELEVANCE OF RESEARCH CONTRIBUTIONS
1. Development of a universal probe for DNA fingerprinting
Dr Singh and his colleagues in the CCMB, at Hyderabad, developed a probe
called Bkm-derived probe for DNA fingerprinting, as a fall out of their earlier
internationally well-known work on the mechanisms of determination of sex.
This indigenously developed probe is being extensively in use for forensic
investigations, paternity determinations and seed stock verifications. DNA
fingerprinting evidence was presented in the court and for the first time in the
annals of Indian history this result was accepted as an infallible evidence in the
court of law. This verdict was upheld by the Kerala High Court. Since then, this
technology was used in 500 cases of paternity disputes, identification of
missing children, identification of mutilated bodies, identification of exchanged
babies in hospitals and rape and murder cases, etc. These include sensational
cases of assassination of the late Prime Minister Shri Rajiv Gandhi,
assassination of Punjab Chief Minister, Swami Premananda case and the
famous tandoor case of Naina Sahni.
Setting up of CDFD
A separate autonomous "Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics"
(CDFD) has been set up by the Department of Biotechnology, Government of
India to apply and further develop this technology for the benefit of the country.
Dr Lalji Singh, as the First In-Charge Officer on Special Duty to this Centre, had
immensely contributed to its present status (From Oct.1995 to Feb.1999) in
addition to his research and other responsibilities in the CCMB.
The Centre is already providing DNA diagnostic services for many genetic
disorders such as Thalassemia, Sickle Cell Anemia, Mental Retardation,
Fragile-X Syndrome, Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, Huntington's Disease,
Azoospermia, etc. The ultimate aim of the Centre is to develop, acquire and
standardize the protocols for carrier detection, prenatal diagnosis and genetic
counseling for all the genetic disorders prevalent in our country. This is an
important achievement for CCMB and CSIR. In recognition of this contribution,
Dr Singh and his group have recently been awarded the CSIR Technology
Award.
2. DNA fingerprinting using indigenously developed Bkm-derived probe
for phylogenetic analyses
DNA Fingerprinting has so far been used only in individual identification and
establishment of biological relationships owing to its extreme power of resolving
individual specific variation present in the genome.
At the CCMB, Dr Singh and his colleagues by using the indigenously developed
Bkm-derived probe, which is successfully used for human DNA fingerprinting,
have shown, for the first time, that DNA fingerprinting can effectively be used to
infer the generic affinities among related group of animals like crocodilians. This
was hitherto thought not to be feasible largely because the fingerprint profiles
are believed to evolve too rapidly to be informative over large time intervals.
Based on qualitative differences in the fingerprints and quantitative differences
in the copy number of Bkm-related sequences in the genomes, they have been
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