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Dr Vijay Gahlaut of the Himalayan Bioresource Technology, Palampur, is working on developing a wheat strain that can grow even in high temperatures. He is trying out DNA methylation technique adding a methyl group (which is a methane molecule in which a hydrogen atom is replaced with another compound) to the DNA to develop a wheat variety that is heat-tolerant.
His research falls under a science called ‘epigenesis’, which means altering gene activity without changing the DNA sequence, an alteration that can be passed on to daughter cells. This research is significant in the context of global warming farmers may not lose productivity if temperatures rise.
Technology > Biotech & pharma
21 January 2021
There could soon be a wheat variety that does not lose its productivity under heat stress thanks to research undertaken by Vijay Gahlaut, an Inspire faculty fellow of the Department of Science and Technology (DST).
Heat stress causes a dramatic reduction in yield and quality loss of wheat, the food crop that nurtures more than one-third of the world population.
In order to address this challenge, Gahlaut is exploring the epigenetic route to modify gene expression in a manner that is stably transmitted but do 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.
Dr Vijay Gahlaut, an Inspire Faculty Fellow of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), is exploring the epigenetic route to modify gene expression