38. Sad/Saad
I/We begin by the Blessed Name of Allah
The Immensely Merciful to all, The Infinitely Compassionate to everyone.
38:01
a. Saad.
b. By The Divine Qur’an - full of Remembrance and Reminders.
38:02
a. They do not have any reason to reject it.
b. Instead, those who disbelieve are lost in conceit and dissent.
38:03
a. How many generations have WE destroyed before them for the same sins!
b. Then they cried out for help when it was far too late to repent and escape the punishment.
38:04
a. Yet they are surprised that a Warner should come to them from among themselves.
b. And the disbelievers say to one another:
c. ‘This Prophet is a deceiver, a liar!’
38:05
a. How ‘has he made our worshipful entities into only One worshipful entity of Allah?
b. Surely this is very astonishing and a curious thing, indeed!’
38:06
a. And the leaders among them went about saying:
b. ‘Let us go out of here.
c. And remain faithful to your worshipful entities.
d. Indeed, this is what is extremely desirable.’
38:07
a. ‘We have not heard anything like this in the religion of these later days.
b. So this concept is nothing but a fabrication.’
38:08
a. How has the Reminder - The Qur’an - been sent down on to him alone from among all of us?
b. No!
c. Instead, they are lost in doubts about MY Reminder.
d. No!
e. In fact, they have not yet tasted MY Punishment!
38:09
a. They think that no one else deserves...
Human cloning has emerged as a new and innovative technology in the reproductive and therapeutic science in the recent past. So far it has not been practiced over human beings but owing to its huge potential and possible scope, it has attracted the attention of not only the masses (particularly the infertile couples and LGBTQs etc) but the other stakeholders including the religious scholars from worlds’ prominent religions have given their views on this technology in order to guide their followers. This paper examines and reviews the religious points of view on human cloning. For this purpose, three Semitic religions in the world i-e Judaism, Christianity, and Islām have been examined. As far as Islam is concerned, this portion has been divided into two broad sections elaborating the Shī‘ah and Sunnī schools’ opinions. Being an innovative topic, the religious teachings do not address it directly hence the injunctions related to the reproduction are most relevant to it. Three Semitic religions have been examined from the perspective of admissibility or non-admissibility of human cloning, the rationale behind the verdict on human cloning and the possible solutions to the issues and problems faced by the followers in the case of acceptance or rejection of this biomedical technology. Most of the religions emphasize over adaptability of the natural mode of reproduction only, where male and female genders contribute to the reproductive cycle. The Semitic religions reject the reproductive cloning generally. The religious experts need to conduct more focused and updated research before coming to any conclusion about the permissibility or non-permissibility of this technique.
A single transcription factor modulates coordinated expression of a set of metabolites in a biochemical pathway, therefore, the use of transcription factors is an imperative strategy in generating plants with desirable traits. The earlier approaches of single-gene modulation were not highly effective because more than one enzymes are involved in a metabolic pathway and the expression of any single enzyme might be masked by concurrent mechanisms in order to maintain homoeostasis. The aim of the study was to develop transgenic wheat overexpressing Triticum aestivum Dof1 (TaDof1) transcription factor that affects the activity of multiple genes involved in nitrogen and carbon metabolisms that ultimately modulates nitrogen assimilation in plants.The TaDof1 was got synthesized, cloned under the control of CaMV35S promoter and terminated by Nos terminator in a binary expression vector pSB219 that carried phosphinothricin N-acetyltransferase cassette as a plant selection marker. The vector pSB219 with TaDof1 construct was transformed in AGL1 strain of Agrobacterium tumefaciens by electroporation method. The immature embryos of two elite wheat cultivars Galaxy and Faisalabd-2008 were excised and placed on callus induction medium (CIM) to initiate callus formation. One to two weeks old embryogenic calli were selected for infection with freshly grown culture of A. tumefaciens harboring TaDof1 cassette. The infected calli were shifted to co-cultivation medium containing 400 µM of acetosyringone. The calli were incubated on co-cultivatoin medium for 48 hours for TDNA delivery into plant genome. In order to suppress the overgrowth of bacterial cells, calli were placed on callus induction medium containing antibiotic timentin (160 mg/L) for 3-4 weeks.To induce shoot formation, the calli were shifted to regeneration (MSK) medium supplemented with kinetin hormone (1 mg/L). The plants were subjected to first round of selection in which they were shifted to regeneration (MSK) medium containing phosphinothricin (2 mg/L) for 2 weeks. The survived plants were transferred to MSO medium for 2 weeks for root formation. The second round of selection was done in which the plants were transferred to regeneration (MSK) medium containing 3 mg/ L of phosphinothricin for another 2 weeks. After selection, the plants showing resistance against phosphinothricin were transferred to MSO medium until long and healthy roots were developed. The plants having healthy shoots and roots were transferred to a mixture of peat moss, vermiculite and perlite (ratio 2:1:1 respectively) in plastic pots. To confirm the integration of complete TaDof1 cassette in plant genome, gene junction PCR was performed on the putative transgenic plants. Out of 31 positive events, only 8 plants possessed complete TaDof1 cassette while the rest of plants had truncated constructs. The seeds of T0 plants were sown in pots that were kept under controlled conditions to obtain T1 transgenic wheat lines. To induce the expression of TaDof1, six selected T1 wheat lines were subjected to nitrogen stress. Total RNA was isolated after 2 and 4 weeks of nitrogen stress in order to quantify the expression of TaDof1 and other related genes. The results of quantitative RT-PCR revealed that only a few transgenic lines showed upregulation of TaDof1 and related genes after 2 weeks of nitrogen stress. The increase in expression levels of citrate synthase (CS), isocitrate dehydrogenase (ICDH), phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPC) and pyruvate kinase (PK) genes ranged from 0.33-0.80 fold in transgenic Faisalabad-2008 and 0.33-17 fold in transgenic Galaxy. However, a substantial rise in the expression of TaDof1 and the genes affected by TaDof1 was observed after 4 weeks of nitrogen stress. The expression profiles of the genes CS, ICDH, PEPC and PK ranged from 0.4-88 fold in transgenic Faisalabad-2008 and 0.35464 fold in transgenic Galaxy. The maximum increase of 464 fold was recorded for ICDH gene expression after 4 weeks of stress. The effect of overexpression of TaDof1 on various agronomic, physiological and biochemical traits of T1 plants was also investigated. For morphological analysis, the data of plant height (cm), number of spikes plant-1, spike length (cm), number of grains spike-1 and seed weight (g) was recorded. Significantly increased values were observed in most of the selected T1 lines for agronomic traits. Under low-nitrogen conditions, all the selected T1 lines exhibited a remarkable increment in chlorophyll a, b and total chlorophyll contents as compared to wild type plants. For chlorophyll a, b and total chlorophyll, the maximum rise of 31 mg g-1FW, 40 mg g-1FW and 35 mg g-1FW respectively was observed in transgenic line of Galaxy (G4) as compared to control plants having 4 mg g-1FW, 6 mg g-1FW and 5 mg g-1FW of chlorophyll a, b and total chlorophyll contents respectively. For soluble protein content, 4 out of 6 T1 lines exhibited significantly increased values with transgenic line of Galaxy (G4) showing the highest value (12 mg g-1FW) in comparison with wild type plant (7 mg g-1FW). A considerable rise in soluble sugar content was recorded in all the T1 lines. The maximum rise of 9.9 mg g-1FW was recorded for transgenic line of Galaxy (G1) as compared to control plant (4.9 mg g-1FW).These findings clearly indicated that overexpression of Dof1 transcription factor not only enhances nitrogen assimilation in plants by modulating the pathway associated with nitrogen and carbon metabolisms but also improves plant growth. The results depict the potential of employing transcription factors in engineering plant metabolisms that pave the way for future characterization of Dof1 plants.