Taking advantage of a GRDC funded trip to attend the Annual meetings of Soil Science SOC of America held in Indianapolis, I requested CRDC funds to visit laboratories involved in research related to Bt-crops and soil biota ie. laboratories of Dr. G. Stotzky at New York

University and Dr. DC. Coleman at the University of Georgia. Both for the CRDC and Dr.

Gupta this would these visits would provide access to the knowledge of the work related to

GM crops (including Bt and herbicide tolerant crops), in particular to latest techniques.

Prior to the Annual meetings Dr. Gupta visited laboratories at the Centre for Microbial

Ecology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, in particular the group headed by Dr. I.

Tiedje known for the development of molecular techniques to study soil Tmcrobial

communities (GRDC funds). Once again this provided us with an opportunity to be exposed

to latest techniques such as DNA Tmcroarrays for parallel analysis of (even quantify) many

Tmcrobial genes.