Crop Improvement

PLANT BIOLOGY AND BIOTECHNOLOGY / Crop Improvement

Research Interests

Engineering herbicide tolerance for integrated weed management, plant genome editing, CRISPR/Cas9 to improve traits of agronomic importance

Description of Research

Harsh agro climatic factors, pests/diseases, weeds and inherent genetic potential of crop plant limit its productivity. Our laboratory involved in developing multidisciplinary strategies to improve crop productivity. We have utilized entire ascorbate-glutathione pathway encoding genes for effectively deactivate environmental stress induced oxidative damage in multiple redox reactions to protect the rice plants from the adverse environmental conditions. In addition to environmental stresses weeds are the most serious biological constraint in agriculture. We have also developed transgenic rice plants simultaneously resistant to several herbicides with different mode of action for application of non-selective herbicides to kill all types of weeds without causing any injury to crop plant is one of the most advanced tool for integrated weed management in agriculture.

The pyramiding of important agronomical trait(s) into modern cultivars through plant breeding taking the advantage of existing natural or induced genetic variability is very time consuming. We have initiated targeted genome editing technology-using CRISPR/Cas9 to introduce the precise and predictable genetic modification(s) in the plant’s native genetic repertoire to create traits of agricultural value directly in an elite cultivar rapidly. Even though the genome editing CRISPR/Cas9 tool was initially introduced into the plant by transgenic approach, it is often unlinked to the targeted DNA editing and can be removed by crossing, leaving a non-transgenic plant line that carries only the desired DNA sequence change. This selective genome editing may not require stringent biosafety regulatory approvals and also allay the public anxiety and satisfy. The willingness of the public to accept food products made from genome engineered plants will give an added advantage to adapt these technologies for crop improvement.

Recent Publications