17. Paramjit Khurana (Born 1956 )

 


 

Paramjit Khurana was an Indian botanist who discovered seeds that could be used in all climates. Mrs. Khurana developed hybrid varieties of mulberry, wheat and paddy that can be used even in severe drought conditions. They could block increased heat and even ultraviolet rays.

Paramjit Khurana was born on August 15, 1956. She was an expert in plant biotechnology, molecular biology and plant genetic studies. She works as a Professor in Plant Biology at Delhi University. He has received many recognitions. More than 125 research papers are his

 

Biography

Paramjit Khurana received her s B.Sc.(1975), M.Sc.(1977), M.Phil.(1978), Ph.D., in Botany from Delhi University. (1983) degrees. There she started working as a scientist in 1983-84 in the department studying plant cells and microbiology. She was also a teacher at SGTB Khalsa College from 1984-87. She joined Michigan State University as a Research Assistant in 1987-88. After returning from America, she worked as a Lecturer from 1989-90, Reader from 1990-98 and Professor from 1988. She works in the Department of Molecular Biology, South Campus, Delhi University. She was the head of the department during 2004-07.

Khurana's important research was on wheat, seri-biotechnology and its genetic transformation. They developed a hybrid of mulberry plants that thrived in saline water and severe drought conditions. Genetic studies of rice and wheat were carried out and 11 chromosomes of rice and 5 chromosomes of tomato were isolated and sequenced. As a professor, he guided 10 post-doctoral students and 15 Ph.D  and 4 M.Phil. students. Her r important contribution was to develop seeds that could be cultivated in different climates. This naturally helped to increase food production in India. She  also developed mulberry plants that could be grown on waste land. She is still continuing her research studies.

Awards

She was given special recognition on International Women's Day 2011. She also received the Archana Sharma Memorial Award from the Indian Science Congress for the period 2011-12.

Indian Academy of Sciences (2010)

Indian National Academy of Sciences (2003)

National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (2014)

J.C. Bose Fellowship (2012-17) from Department of Science & Technology under Central Govt.

Major Publications

Dr. Khurana has 125 publications in national and international journals. Some of them are given below. (Wikipedia)

• Identification and characterization of high temperature stress responsive genes in bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and their regulation at various stages of development (2011), in Plant Molecular Biology Journal 75: 35-51.

• Development of drought tolerant transgenic doubled haploid in wheat through Agrobacterium-mediated transformation (2011) in Plant Biotech Journal 9: 408-417.

• Carotenoid biosynthesis genes in rice: Structural analysis, genome-wide expression profiling and phylogenetic analysis (2010) Mol. Genet. Genomics Journal 283: 13-33.

• High-efficiency transformation and selective tolerance against biotic and abiotic stress in mulberry, Morus indica cv. K2, by constitutive and inducible expression of tobacco osmotin (2010) in Transgenic Research Journal 20: 231-246

• Gene expression profile during somatic embryogenesis in wheat (Triticum aestivum) leaf base system (2007) in Plant Mol. Biology Journal 65: 677-692.

• Rosales sister to Fabales: towards resolving the rosid puzzle (2006) in Molecular Phylogenetics & Evolution Journal 44: 488-493

• The chloroplast genome of mulberry (Morus indica cv. K2): complete nucleotide sequence, gene organization and comparative analysis (2006) published in Tree Genetics & Genomes Journal 3: 49-59

• The map-based sequence of the rice genome (2005) as part of International Rice Genome Sequencing Project, published in Nature 436: 793-800

• Genetic transformation of Indian bread (T. aestivum) and pasta (T. durum) wheat by particle bombardment of mature embryo-derived calli (2003) published in BMC Plant Biology 3: 5-16

• Bradyrhizobium japonicum lipopolysaccharide inhibits symplastic communication in soybean (Glycine max) cells (1989) in J. Biol. Chem. 264: 12119-12121

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