This research will help know the characteristics and improve the nopal for its consumption and application in the control of diseases.

Celaya, Gto., June 25, 2016.- The nopal, one of the basic products in the Mexican nutrition, is the object of study in the Laboratory of Biotechnology from Campus Celaya-Salvatierra, where through the project "genetic diversity of the nopal", they seek to obtain the genetic line, observe the existing variability in the species and improve it for consumption.

In Mexico, at least 400 species of nopal are recognized, and there are precise studies of its characteristics of its root, flower, penca, seed, thorn and the fruit. However, the research done at the University of Guanajuato pretends to help in knowing the characteristics and improve the nopal for consumption, explained Dr. Carlos Alberto Nuñez Colín, ascribed to the Department of Agro-industrial Engineering and Professor of Biotechnology Engineering.

ON the matter, on the varieties of the nopal, he said that "some species are edible, other give sweet fruit, other give acid fruit, and others are used as forage for cattle, and the cross of yellow & red tuna spawn species that may not be so good," so we seek to specify through genetic study which are the species that help control diseases such as diabetes.

It is about "finding the origin of the species, through the application of molecular markers in genes, in this case, directly in the observation of the chloroplasts that are inherited in the maternal way, which allows to create the complete genetic line and it will be able to cut a species and begin another, and it will allow to see the compatibility among them" added Dr. Nuñez Colín.

Three students from Biotechnology got involved in the research, who participate and work in the laboratory in collaboration with the National Institute of Forest, Agricultural and Livestock Research (INIFAP for its acronym in Spanish).

According to Dr. Carlos Alberto Nuñez, this is the beginning of a project with greater reach, since the differences obtained in the genetic study, will allow to have knowledge applied to the agricultural sector, to generate new varieties of products "and truly understand the genetic inheritance and that the improvement programs are really effective not only in the nopal but in seeds such as corn, sorghum and beans", hence, he invites all Biotechnology students to join this project.