THE ROLE OF BIOCHEMISTRY IN AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES OF THE XXI CENTURY

Abstract

In the last 30 years the College of Postgraduates has played a very important role in the training of resources humans, with extensive information on agricultural sciences and their application in various areas of the country, including those in urgent need of development. The physiological-biochemical sciences have received a considerable boost in various Centers of the Postgraduate College, mainly those that form, in aninterdisciplinary manner, the Plant Physiology Program. This Program has been widely accepted among students, some of whom come from the institution's academic staff in search of a doctoral degree. The close links between Physiology, Physiotechnics and Plant Breeding, with Biochemistry (Figure 1) are due to the fact that all the physiological processes of plants are related to the metabolic cycles of  synthesis and degradation of biomolecules, with the enzymatic processes that catalyze these reactions and with the constitution of the deoxyribonucleic acids that dictate the information for protein biosynthesis. Disciplines such as Molecular Biology, Biotechnology and Genetic Bioengineering have achieved a deeper knowledge about the molecular mechanisms of the plant, which has allowed the development of more advanced plant breeding techniques than those that have prevailed until now. The refinement of Tissue Culture, which allows a complete plant to be regenerated from one cell or protoplasts, has made it possible to use the totipotency of somatic cells in the strategies of Molecular Biology and Genetic Bioengineering for the incorporation of new genes into plants. floors. If the Postgraduate College wants to maintain its leadership in agricultural sciences, it will be necessary to intensify its teaching and research programs in these new scientific disciplines.