Sanjeev Kumar

• Ph.D. (Biotechnology)
• Principal Investigator at Indian Institute of Sugarcane Research

The United Nations has laid down 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for protecting the planet and encourage prosperity and peace by 2030. In accord of these goals, and India being an emerging global leader is truly committed to achieve these SDGs. The whole biological system depends for their life on agriculture and a shift to sustainable cult...

As a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure peace and prosperity by 2030, the United Nations have adopted 17 Sustainable Development goals (SDGs). In accord with these goals, India being an emerging global leader is truly committed to achieve these SDGs. Although India is the fourth largest economy in terms of GDP, i...

Identification of the source of genetic variation in the large and complex genome of sugarcane has been comparatively less explored through next-generation sequencing tools. In this study, RNA-seq libraries of two extreme bulks from a segregating full-sib population and its parents were used to identify highly significant, alternate splicing (AS) e...

Sugarcane (Saccharum species hybrid) is one of the most important commercial crops cultivated worldwide for products like white sugar, bagasse, ethanol, etc. Red rot is a major sugarcane disease caused by a hemi-biotrophic fungus, Colletotrichum falcatum Went., which can potentially cause a reduction in yield up to 100%. Breeding for red rot-resist...

Here authors have given the comprehensive summary of seventy years of crop improvement work done at ICAR-IISR, Lucknow.

Marker-assisted selection (MAS) has been widely used in the last few decades in plant breeding programs for the mapping and introgression of genes for economically important traits, which has enabled the development of a number of superior cultivars in different crops. In sugarcane, which is the most important source for sugar and bioethanol, marke...

Sucrose is the prime product of sugarcane and a significant variation has been observed among different sugarcane genotypes for the time taken to initiate sucrose accumulation. High sucrose accumulation in sugarcane at early crop phase is one of the most desirable traits, since it can help in reducing its long growth cycle. This study is based on a...

Sugarcane (Saccharum species complex) is an important industrial crop in India, and it contributed 6.8% to the total export earnings from agricultural products during 2020–21. India ranked second after Brazil in terms of area and production of sugarcane and accounted for 17.5% and 19.4% of the global acreage and production, respectively. This paper...

The genetic improvement efforts in sugarcane are largely centered around increasing its sucrose accumulation potential. Sugarcane genotypes show variable regulation of genes involved in synthesis, accumulation, transport, storage and subsequent retention of sucrose. MicroRNAs (miRNAs), which are a class of small non-coding RNAs play a very importan...

Among the biotic factors, which affect the productivity and quality of sugarcane, red rot disease caused by the fungal pathogen, Colletotrichum falcatum is the most devastating that cause enormous loss to millers as well as cane growers. We present a highly contiguous genome assembly of C. falcatum pathotype Cf08 which is virulent to popular sugarc...

Intercropping of mustard or potato in sugarcane in relation to traditional non-intercropping rotation on microbial diversity, soil quality and crop productivity was assessed in a 3-year cropping system trial. The systems consisted of sugarcane + mustard–ratoon–cowpea (SmRC), sugarcane + potato–ratoon–wheat (SpRW) and a standard sugarcane–ratoon–whe...

In the last two decades, the productivity of rice-wheat system in the upper Indo-Gangetic Plains of India has come to a plateau, and, as a result, farmers are now shifting to other crop grown systems to achieve a higher net productivity. Inclusion of other crop grown system in place of rice-wheat system affect overall crop productivity, however, th...

In the last two decades, the productivity of rice-wheat system in the upper Indo-Gangetic Plains of India has come to a plateau, and, as a result, farmers are now shifting to other crop grown systems to achieve a higher net productivity. Inclusion of other crop grown system in place of rice-wheat system affect overall crop productivity, however, th...

Wheat-rice cropping system has several negative effects on sustainability factors like underground water, soil structure, nutrient availability, soil organic carbon and productivity. In order to alleviate the obstacles of intensive cultivation of wheat-rice system, the impact of different cropping systems, viz., wheat-rice (W-R), lentilrice (L–R),...

Sugarcane improvement programmes in India have concentrated on development of improved varieties suited to the different locations. Along with the early maturing sugarcane varieties, mid-late maturing varieties facilitate a proper varietal planning for efficient and extended functioning of sugar mills. ICAR-Indian Institute of Sugarcane Research, L...

Sugarcane improvement programmes in India have concentrated on development of improved varieties suited to the different locations. Along with the early maturing sugarcane varieties, mid-late maturing varieties facilitate a proper varietal planning for efficient and extended functioning of sugar mills. ICAR-Indian Institute of Sugarcane Research, L...

Sugarcane is one of the most important economic crops and contributes more than 80% of the sugar globally. Developing superior sugarcane varieties is a long-term process due to polyploidy, high chromosome numbers, large complex genome size and also many other practical constraints like long breeding cycle, etc. The recent advancements in molecular...

Sucrose is the key economic trait in sugarcane which is a highly polyploid multi-species hybrid and shows a complex pattern of trait inheritance. The excessively large genome of sugarcane is comparatively less explored through Next Generation Sequencing tools for creating superior varieties. In this study, RNAseq libraries of two extreme bulks from...

Yellow leaf disease (YLD) of sugarcane is one of the emerging and serious diseases of sugarcane in India. YLD is a complex disease because it is caused by a single or mixed infections of Sugarcane yellow leaf virus (SCYLV) and sugarcane yellows phytoplasma (SCYLP). So far no control measure of this disease is available except the resistant genotype...

Testing the genetic fidelity of micropropagated clones with DNA markers could curtail the losses caused by somaclonal variation in sugarcane tissue culture industry. Evaluation of 32 inter-retrotransposon amplified polymorphism (IRAP) markers and 100 inter-simple sequence repeats (ISSRs) in 47 sugarcane accessions identified 20 (8 IRAPs and 12 ISSR...

Genetic diversity in 92 sugarcane varieties of sub-tropical India was assessed using 30 morphological descriptors and 643 simple sequence repeat (SSR) marker loci. Out of the 30 morphological descriptors, 14 were found polymorphic, and significant variability was recorded for plant height, cane diameter and number of millable canes. Grouping traits...

Sugarcane (Saccharum species hybrid) is the major source of sugar (> 80% sugar) in the world and is cultivated in more than 115 countries. It has recently gained attention as a source of biofuel (ethanol). Due to genomic complexity, the development of new genomic resources is imperative in understanding the gene regulation and function, and to fine...

Thirty-eight isolates of Trichoderma spp. established from the rhizosphere of sugarcane were characterized using a multiplex PCR assay and further assessed for the production of hydrolytic enzymes chitinase and cellulase. The results of multiplex PCR assay successfully identified 29 isolates and revealed T. harzianum to be the predominant species (...

Sugarcane, one of the most photosynthetically efficient crops, is an important source of sugar and feedstock for green energy and co-generation. The high level of polyploidy and genomic peculiarities in this crop point towards a complex mechanism of regulation for the economically important traits like sugar content, cane yield related traits, resi...

Host preference of evolving insect vectors has a direct correlation in transmitting plant viruses. The presence of more than 50 lakh species of insects on the earth has been estimated and, approximately 5000 virus species infecting plants, animals, bacteria, fungi have been known to exist on the earth. Among several insect orders, Insecta is the ma...

Diseases in sugarcanes like red rot, leaf scald, ratoon stunting, grassy shoot and mosaic are carried to succeeding crops through infected seeds. Thus, heavy financial losses occur annually on account of reduction in cane yield and sucrose recovery. In this context, use of healthy seed of recommended varieties through hot air treatment and tissue c...

The Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Govt. of India, in the year 2005, established a National Certification System for Tissue Culture-raised Plants (NCS-TCP). The aim of NCSTCP is to enhance the production and distribution of tissue culture-raised genetically uniform and virus-free planting materials to the farmers. In this endeavour, a Managemen...

Ninety two sugarcane varieties from sub-tropical India were subjected to molecular profiling with 174 simple sequence repeat markers and characterized for 23 qualitative (morphological descriptors) and nine quantitative traits that directly or indirectly contribute to yield and juice quality. Using STRUCTURE-based population stratification study an...

An efficient in vitro propagation system was developed for large-scale multiplication of a high yielding line (IIVRPG-102) of pointed gourd (Trichosanthes dioica Roxb.) utilizing nodal segments. A procedure for surface sterilization, involving a combination of treatments with cetrimide (1.0%) for 30 min, trimethoprim (0.05%) and dimethycarbendazim...

Genetic diversity in 143 Indian bean [Lablab purpureus (L.) Sweet] accessions from India was assessed using simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. A total of 134 SSR markers developed from common bean, cowpea, mung bean, moth bean and Faba bean were used to assess their transferability to Indian bean. Quantitative traits as well as SSR marker data w...

Red rot is a serious disease of sugarcane caused by the fungus Colletotrichum falcatum that has a colossal damage potential. The fungus, prevalent mainly in the Indian sub-continent, keeps on producing new pathogenic strains leading to breakdown of resistance in newly released varieties and hence the deployment of linked markers for marker-assisted...

Testing and Certification of Tissue Culture Raised Quality Planting Material

Yellow leaf disease (YLD) of sugarcane is one of the emerging and serious diseases of sugarcane in India. YLD is a complex disease because it is caused by a single or mixed infections of Sugarcane yellow leaf virus (SCYLV) and sugarcane yellows phytoplasma (SCYLP). So far no control measure of this disease is available except the resistant genotype...

Somatic hybridization (SH) using protoplast fusion is a promising tool to produce symmetrical and asymmetrical polyploidy somatic hybrids in many agricultural crops. The technique of SH could facilitate conventional breeding by providing of novel lines so as to use them as elite breeding materials in conventional crosses for both scion and rootstoc...

Four different F2 populations were developed involving Solanum habrochaites accession ‘EC-520061’ that is highly resistant to Tomato leaf curl virus (ToLCV) disease and four ToLCV-susceptible cultivars of tomato (S. lycopersicum L.), ‘Punjab Chhuhara’ (PBC), ‘H-24’, ‘H-86’, and ‘DVRT-2’. The segregation ratios of tomato leaf curl disease developmen...

Four different F2populations were developed involving Solanum habrochaitesaccession ‘EC-520061’ that is highly resistant to Tomato leaf curl virus (ToLCV) disease and four ToLCV-susceptible cultivars of tomato (S. lycopersicumL.), ‘Punjab Chhuhara’ (PBC), ‘H-24’, ‘H-86’, and ‘DVRT-2’. The segregation ratios of tomato leaf curl disease development i...

Linkage disequilibrium (LD)-based marker-trait association (MTA) was used to identify markers for sucrose and yield contributing traits in a panel of 108 sugarcane genotypes from sub-tropical India. Population structure (Q), kinship (K), and MTA study exploited a set of 989 marker loci generated from 123 genomic- and expressed sequence tag-SSR prim...

Snapmelon (Cucumis melo var. momordica) is native to India and many of its accessions have been used as source for disease and insect pest resistance, worldwide. Inter simple sequence repeat (ISSR) markers were used to evaluate intra-specific genetic diversity among twenty-two snapmelon accessions, variable for fruit cracking, peeling patterns, f...

Indian bean [Lablab purpureus (L.) Sweet] is an underexploited nutritious legume vegetable found in tropical regions of Asia and Africa. The nutritional and anti-oxidant properties of 21 pole type Indian bean genotypes were analysed in edible pods in terms of protein, sugar, chlorophyll, carotenoids, phenol, and proline contents. The analyses revea...

French bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) is one of the most important sources of proteins, carbohydrates, fibres, certain minerals and vitamins, and adds specific nutritional value to human diet. In this study interrelation between number of pods per plant and pod size (length and width) and nutritional (protein, carotenoids, sugar, lipid, ascorbic acid...

Transgenic tomato lines (cv. Kashi Vishesh) over-expressing AtDREB1A/CBF3 driven by stress-inducible rd29A promoter showed significantly higher activities of key antioxidant enzymes when exposed to water-deficit for 7, 14, and 21 days. Transgenic tomato plants exposed to water-deficit recorded lower levels of hydrogen peroxide and superoxide anion...

Pointed gourd (Trichosanthes dioica Roxb.) is one of the most important cucurbit vegetables in tropical and subtropical regions of the world, particularly in India and Bangladesh. Pointed gourd is morphologically distinct from other cucurbitaceous species due to its well-established dioecism, perennial nature, and vegetative means of propagation. F...

An efficient protocol for rapid in vitro clonal propagation of spine gourd (Momordica dioica Roxb.) genotype RSR/DR15 (female) and DR/NKB-28 (male) was developed through enhanced axillary shoot proliferation from nodal segments. Maximum shoot proliferation of 6.2 shoots per explant with 100 % shoot regeneration frequency was obtained from the femal...

Fifty two sexual progeny of pointed gourd (Trichosanthes dioica Roxb.), raised through embryo culture, were used for identification of RAPD markers associated with sex expression traits. Genomic DNA from male and female progeny plants and from a parthenocarpic clone (IIVRPG-105) were extracted individually and bulked by sex type. Forty-one random d...

An efficient protocol was developed for Agro-bacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) cultivars using cotyledon explants. The transformation frequency was assessed in response to several different factors, including seed germination medi-um, seedling age, pre-culture duration, pre-culture and co-cultivation med...

Genetic variability and nature of association among lodging resistance and yield and yield related components were assessed in 56 diverse pea genotypes. The high estimates of PCV and GCV for lodging score, plant height, pods per plant and seed yield per plant revealed that genotypes had a broad genetic background and would respond to selection. Cor...

The present research aimed to evaluate the effect of silver nitrate (AgNO3) on sex modification in sweet gourd (Momordica cochinchinensis Spreng.), and to explore the possibility of sexual crossing between two genetically female plants. Spray applications of AgNO3 on 30days’ old female plants induced hermaphrodite flowers. Male plants were insensit...

Pepper leaf curl virus (PepLCV) is the most destructive pathogen of pepper and causes substantial economic losses of chilli production worldwide. Curling and puckering of leaves and stunted growth of the plants are typical symptoms of the viral infection. For a reliable detection of PepLCV, coat protein specific primer pairs were designed and after...

Gene action, combining ability and heterosis for quality and yield attributes in pumpkin was studied involving 21 cross combinations obtained from seven diverse inbreds in half-diallel fashion for four characters. The analysis revealed that none of the parents was a good general combiner for all the characters consistently; however, the parent, pum...

Seed storage proteins are synthesized in high abundance during seed development and maturation, and are characterized as mid-embryogenesis and late-embryogenesis abundant proteins. The regulation of transcription of seed-protein gene families is not coordinated and transcription of each gene family is independently regulated. All seed protein gene...

Tomato leaf curl disease (ToLCD) may cause severe yield loss in tomato in India. This disease is generally caused by strains of begomoviruses that are bipartite and transmitted by the whitefly, Bemisia tabaci (Genn.). Management of ToLCD consists of spraying large amounts of insecticides mainly to control the population of the whitefly virus vector...

The inheritance of five stem and leaf morphological characters was studied in progeny of a perennial dioecious species, Trichosanthes dioica from the female clone IIVRPG-102 pollinated by the male clone IIVRPG-M. Because mature seeds failed to germinate even after scarification, embryos from almost fully developed seeds were excised and cultured in...

DNA samples were extracted separately from 10 male and 10 female sexual progeny of pointed gourd (Trichosanthes dioica), and 3 plants from a parthenocarpic clone (IIVRPG-105); the DNAs were bulked by sex type. Forty-one random decamer primers were screened with the three bulks in order to identify markers associated with sex expression. A total of...

The world today is facing three challenges of unprecedented magnitude viz., hunger, environmental degradations, and population growth. Agriculture is the only sector, which can efficiently address all the three challanges and now the interest of many developed as well as developing countries in agriculture proves this fact. India has integrated its...

Experiments were conducted to study genetics of fertility restoration and to examine distribution of RAPD markers (OPW19800 and OPP131400) linked with fertility restoration gene (Rf) in pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) inbreds. Forty-two hot and five sweet pepper inbreds were crossed on a cytoplasmic male sterile (cms) line CCA-4261 and F1s were evaluat...

In present study, an attempt has been made to assess the genetic diversity among 34 accessions of Benincasa hispida using quantitative traits and RAPD data. Variability was observed for characters like days to first female flower, fruit weight, equatorial and polar diameter. Cluster analysis based on quantitative traits revealed a high degree of di...

Random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) technique was used as a tool for assessing genetic diversity and species relationships among 28 accessions of eggplant representing five species. Twenty-eight samples of eggplants were collected from different parts of the country. A total of 144 polymorphic amplified products were obtained from 14 decamer pr...

Validity of two RAPD markers (OPP13 1397 and OPW19 800) associated with fertility restorer (Rf) gene was tested in a panel of 47 newly identified restorer and maintainer inbred plants of pepper (Capsicum annuum L.). Among the 37 restorer lines identified during this study, OPP13 1397 and OPW19 800 fragments were although repeatable and consistent,...

Pointed gourd (Trichosanthes dioica Roxb.) is one of the most nutritive cucurbit vegetables holds a coveted position in the Indian market during summer and rainy season. It is a perennial crop highly accepted due to its availability for eight months in a year (February–September). Being very rich in protein and vitamin A, it has certain medicinal p...

Introduction Eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) is an important vegetable crop of Indian origin holds a coveted position in Indian sub-continent in summer and rainy season. Due to good nutritional value and its suitability to grow under a wide range of growing conditions, it has been extensively cultivated in different parts of world. Immense variabil...

Cucurbits belong to family Cucurbitaceae, includes about 118 genera and 825 species. In India, a number of major and minor cucurbits are cultivated, which share about 5.6 % of the total vegetable production. They are consumed in various forms i.e., salad (cucumber, gherkins, long melon), sweet (ash gourd, pointed gourd), pickles (gherkins), and des...

Thirty four (9 cultivars and 25 germplasm) genotypes of ash gourd (Benincasa hispida) have been studied to assess the molecular diversity using RAPD markers. A total of 25 RAPD markers produced 163 amplicons, of which 73 % were found polymorphic indicating a high degree of diversity. RAPD based dendrogram showed dissimilarity values from 0.64 to 0....