Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This is a test research to test the notification workflows in the SRA

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Arabinoxylans (AX) are the major dietary fibers (DF) components in wheat and their consumption has been associated with multiple health benefits. However, in most of the countries across the world, the daily DF consumption is well below the minimum quantity suggested by most health organizations. Selection of wheat varieties with higher AX content could be an efficient approach to improve the daily consumption of DF.

Arabinoxylans (AX) are the major dietary fibers (DF) components in wheat and their consumption has been associated with multiple health benefits. However, in most of the countries across the world, the daily DF consumption is well below the minimum quantity suggested by most health organizations. Selection of wheat varieties with higher AX content could be an efficient approach to improve the daily consumption of DF.

Attaining food security for a growing population and alleviating poverty while sustaining agricultural systems under the current scenario of depleting natural resources, negative impacts of climatic variability, spiraling cost of inputs and volatile food prices are the major challenges in front of Indian Agriculture. The tillage intensive conventional cereal-based cropping systems which is instrumental in achieving of self-sufficiency in food-grain production often led to emergence of second generation problems of green revolution viz., decline in soil organic matter, soil degradation, emergence of multi-nutrient deficiency, soil compaction, crop residue burning etc. leading towards non-sustainability in long-term. Conservation agriculture can be seen as a new way forward for conserving resources and enhancing productivity to achieve the goals of sustainable agriculture, which demands a strong knowledge base and a combination of institutional and technological innovations. Conservation Agriculture (CA) technologies involves the minimum soil disturbance, permanent soil cover through crop residues, or cover crops, and crop diversification for achieving higher productivity.

Quantitative trait variation may display a complex genetic architecture, which is the underlying basis of a phenotype, with few genes with large effects and several genes with small effects. The genes can show additive, dominance or/and epistatic effects and different types of interaction with the environment. Advances in plant genomics –and, more recently, in DNA sequencing of many species– coupled with the availability of statistical and biometric methods for analyzing genetic and phenotypic data with friendly software, have made it feasible to map and dissect complex quantitative trait variation. Genomic selection (GS) and prediction based on genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism genotyping, pedigree and phenotypic data are very powerful tools for capturing small genetic effects dispersed over the genome; this allows predicting an individual’s phenotype. New methods and tools are continuously being developed to integrate GS into genetics research. One of the key issues with GS is the fact that there are usually many more individuals that have been phenotyped and have pedigree data than individuals with marker data. When attempting to make predictions, only lines with marker, pedigree and phenotypic data can be used, thus leaving out lines with pedigree and phenotypic data that have missing marker data. This project aims to develop a novel approach that uses Bayesian statistics to combine genotypic data with pedigree and phenotypic data and therefore use all available data. This project will lead to developing new algorithms and software for GS based on advanced statistical methods that will cause a paradigm shift in this field.

Attaining food security for a growing population and alleviating poverty while sustaining agricultural systems under the current scenario of depleting natural resources, negative impacts of climatic variability, spiraling cost of inputs and volatile food prices are the major challenges in front of Indian Agriculture. The tillage intensive conventional cereal-based cropping systems which is instrumental in achieving of self-sufficiency in food-grain production often led to emergence of second generation problems of green revolution viz., decline in soil organic matter, soil degradation, emergence of multi-nutrient deficiency, soil compaction, crop residue burning etc. leading towards non-sustainability in long-term

The ability to map actual and potential yields at scale would enable much more informed policy interventions and targeted investments. While methods exists, much empirical validation remains to be done for maize systems in sub-Saharan Africa.

Determination of wheat genotypes against single and multiple reactions of Fusarium culmorum and Pratylenchus thornei pathogens and role of wheat SWEET gene family in host-pathogen interaction

Improving heat and drought tolerance in wheat is paramount to ensure food security of the burgeoning world population under scenarios of climate change. Several genes with a probable role in abiotic stress tolerance have been cloned in wheat and functionally validated in transgenic Arabidopsis, tobacco and/or wheat lines under controlled environments. However, breeders have not been able to integrate them in their breeding pipelines due to lack of functional markers.