TAD NewsDesk, New Delhi: Dr Vijay Gahlaut, faculty of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research – Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology (CSIR-IHBT) is working to produce wheat crop of heat tolerant varieties. This will ensure longer sustenance of the crops in hotter areas.
Dr Gahlaut explained that excessive exposure to heat causes reduction in agriculture output due to lack of healthy wheat crops threatening the food supply across the world.
Dr Gahlaut is trying to find a solution the problem. He is exploring the epigenetic route to modify gene expression in a manner that is stably transmitted but does not involve differences in the underlying DNA sequence, so that the heritable genes do not buckle under heat stress and non-stress conditions during different grain filling stages. As a result the crops become rsilient to heat and it will protect the crops from any temperature related damage throughout the process of cultivation to transportation.
In a journal named ‘Genomics’, he has published his findings. He has explained the responses of genetically modified crops to heat and temperature based on extensive experiments.
Dr Gahlaut is also an Inspire Faculty Fellow of the Department of Science and Technology (DST) under the Union Government. Under this programme the government funds the innovations and research work by select individuals to help them showcase their projects at national and international levels. The individuals for this project are being selected on the basis of research proposals and specimens provided by the participants.
New research into the arena to develop the resilience of the crops is progressing and this could be a step forward.
Source: NDTV
