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I wish to express my profound gratitude to my major advisor Dr. Prasanta K. Subudhi and co-major advisor Dr. Stephen A. Harrison for their guidance for successful completion of my research project. I sincerely thank for their confidence and faith on me throughout my research. I would like to express my deep appreciation to my committee member Dr. Charlie Johnson for serving on my thesis committee, allowing me to use the tissue cultured equipment and for his valuable suggestions during the course of investigation. I am also thankful to Drs. Gerald Myers and Collins Kimbeng for allowing me to use the laminar hood and Thermocycler for my research, respectively. I am immensely grateful to Dr. Niranjan Baisakh for sharing his knowledge in tissue culture, technical advice and invaluable comments throughout this period. I am also thankful to Dr. David Nash of the North Carolina State University for providing the seeds of different sea oats accessions used in this study. I would like to acknowledge the Coastal Restoration and Enhancement through Science and Technology (CREST) and CREST Scholar’s Program funding that supported my studies. My deepest gratitude goes to Nachi for his statistical expertise, computer issues and motivation to finish this thesis. My brother’s words were the most needed when I was low and fighting back to get on the track. I would also like to thank my friends and well wishers Bibhu