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