Plants are rooted in a fixed spot; hence they cannot escape episodes of environmental stress. To cope with stressful conditions a plethora of plant adaptive responses are triggered.

Our lab [Integrative Plant AdaptOmics Lab (iPAL) — demystifying how plants endure climatic stress?] implements an integrative multi-omics approach to capture plant adaptive responses. We are broadly interested in exploring the intricacies of plant-environment interactions at various scales spanning from genes-to-plants-to-ecosystems (PlantAdaptOme).

The specific research interests of the lab lie to advance mechanistic understanding of plant responses to global climate change factors such as rising atmospheric CO₂, temperature, drought, and nutrient stress. For this, we use crops of the Himalayan region and also study Arabidopsis to unravel molecular mechanisms underpinning stress adaptation. 

As an end goal, obtained research findings would be funneled into strategies to develop climate-resilient and resource-efficient plants by utilizing ecological, chemical, genetic engineering, and/or genome editing technologies.

The current research themes of Integrative Plant AdaptOmics Lab (iPAL) are:-

• Ancient Crops for Future Climate (ACCLIMATE)
• High Temperature and Potato Tuberization (Hot-Pot)
• Transgenerational Heat Adaptation (TransHeat)

Fellowships/Awards 

• Young Scientist Award 2022 (Himalayan Phytopathological Society, India).
• NSFC-International Young Scientists Fund from Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), (2020-2021).
• ORISE-Postdoctoral Fellowship from USDA-ARS at Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA (2019-2021, not availed).
• CAS-Postdoctoral Fellowship from Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), China (2015-2020).
• GRC & GRS Travel Funding to attend Gordon Research Conference (GRC) in Italy (2017, not availed).
• Young Scientist Award nomination at 3rd International Plant Physiology Conference (IPPC), India (2015).
• FWO-Ph.D. Fellowship from Flanders Science Foundation (FWO), Belgium (2010-2014).
• Senior Research Fellowship from Department of Biotechnology (DBT), India (2008-2010).
• Certificate of Merit from H.P. Board of School Education Dharamshala, H.P., India (1999). 

Key Training Courses 

• “Advanced Biological Imaging and Elemental Analysis” sponsored by DST-STUTI at Department of Plant Molecular Biology, Unversity of Delhi, South Campus, India (7th-13th Sept 2022).
• “EMBL Advanced Course on Whole Transcriptome Data Analysis” at European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Heidelberg, Germany, (23rd-25th June 2015).
• “Statistical Analysis of Omics Data” at Wageningen University, Netherlands (13th-17th Dec. 2010).
• “Analysis of Public Microarray Data using Genevestigator” at VIB Ghent, Belgium (6th-9th Nov. 2012).
• “Basic Principles of Statistics” at University of Antwerp, Belgium, (June-July 2012).

 Editorial Roles 

• Feature Editor, Molecular Plant (Cell Press)
• Associate Editor, Plant-Environment and Interactions (Wiley)
• Associate Editor, BMC Plant Biology (BMC-Springer Nature)
• Associate Editor, CABI Agriculture and Bioscience (BMC-Springer Nature)
• Associate Editor, Plant Physiology Reports, formerly known as Indian Journal of Plant Physiology (Springer)
• Review Editor, Frontiers in Plant Science
• Review Editor, Frontiers in Genetics 

Science Outreach

• Plantae Fellow 2019 (American Society of Plant Biology)
• eLife Ambassador 2019 

Scientometrics 

• Total Papers: 43 (Research: 31, Review: 12)
• First / ^#Co-first articles: 9
• *Corresponding author articles: 10
• Book Chapters: 4 (first author: 1; corresponding author: 3)
• Total Impact Factor (IF): 258.80; Average IF: 7.27
• Google Scholar Citations: 2188; H index: 22
• High-impact papers published in journals viz. Trends in Plant Science (IF 22.01), Nature Communications (IF 17.69), Biotechnology Advances (IF 17.60), Journal of Hazardous Materials (IF 14.22), Global Change Biology (IF 13.20), Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA (IF 12.78), New Phytologist (IF 10.32), Environmental Pollution (IF 9.99), Plant Cell and Environment (IF 7.95), Journal of Experimental Botany (IF 7.30), Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety (IF 7.13), Frontiers in Plant Science (IF 6.63), iScience (IF 6.11), Environmental and Experimental Botany (IF 6.03), Physiologia Plantarum (IF 5.08), etc.
• Google Scholar: https://tinyurl.com/3dhedsff

 Research Articles 

• AbdElgawad H^#, ZintaG^#, Hornbacher J, Papenbrock J, Markakis MN, Asard H, Beemster GTS. Elevated CO₂ mitigates the impact of drought stress by upregulating glucosinolate metabolism in Arabidopsis thaliana. Plant Cell and Environment. (Accepted) (IF 7.95)
• Dutta M, Raturi V, Gahlaut V, Kumar A, Sharma P, Verma V, Gupta VK, Sood S, Zinta G*. The interplay of DNA methyltransferases and demethylases with tuberization genes in potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) genotypes under high temperature. Frontiers in Plant Science. 2022;13. (IF 6.93)
• Wang J, Chen B, Ali S, Zhang T, Wang Y, Zhang H, Wang L, Zhang Y, Xie L, Jiang T, Yin J...Zinta G....Zhang Q. Epigenetic modification associated with climate regulates betulin biosynthesis in birch. Journal of Forestry Research. 2021 Dec 4:1-5. (IF 2.36)
• He L, Zhao C, Zhang Q, Zinta G, Wang D, Lozano-Durán R, Zhu J-K (2021) A pathway conversion enables a double-lock mechanism to maintain DNA methylation and genome stability. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS-USA) DOI:10.1073/pnas.2107320118. (IF 12.78)
• AbdElgawad H^#, Schoenaers S^#, Zinta G^#*, Hassan YM, Abdel-Mawgoud M, Alkhalifah DHM, Hozzein WN, Asard H and Abuelsoud W (2021) Soil arsenic toxicity differentially impacts C3 (barley) and C4 (maize) crops under future climate atmospheric CO₂. Journal of Hazardous Materials 414:125331. (IF 14.22)
• AbdElgawad H^#, Zinta G^#*, Abuelsoud W^#, Hassan YM, Alkhalifah DHM, Hozzein WN, Zrieq R, Beemster GT and Schoenaers S (2021) An actinomycete strain of Nocardiopsis lucentensis reduces arsenic toxicity in barley and maize. Journal of Hazardous Materials 417:126055. (IF 14.22)
• Kiran A, Sharma P, Awasthi R, Nayyar H, Seth R, Chandel SS, Siddique KH, Zinta G and Sharma KD (2021) Disruption of carbohydrate and proline metabolism in anthers under low temperature causes pollen sterility in chickpea. Environmental and Experimental Botany 188:104500. (IF 6.03)
• Verma V, Zinta G and Kanwar K (2021) Optimization of efficient direct organogenesis protocol for Punica granatum L. cv. Kandhari Kabuli from mature leaf explants. In Vitro Cellular & Developmental Biology-Plant 57:48-59. (IF 2.35)
• AbdElgawad H, Abuelsoud W, Madany MM, Selim S, Zinta G, Mousa AS and Hozzein WN (2020) Actinomycetes enrich soil rhizosphere and improve seed quality as well as productivity of legumes by boosting nitrogen availability and metabolism. Biomolecules 10:1675. (IF 6.06)
• AbdElgawad H^#, Zinta G^#, Hamed BA, Selim S, Beemster G, Hozzein WN, Wadaan MA, Asard H and Abuelsoud W (2020) Maize roots and shoots show distinct profiles of oxidative stress and antioxidant defense under heavy metal toxicity. Environmental Pollution 258:113705. (IF 9.99)
• Bhaskarla V^#, Zinta G^#, Ford R, Jain M, Varshney RK and Mantri N (2020) Comparative root transcriptomics provide insights into drought adaptation strategies in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.). International Journal of Molecular Sciences 21:1781. (IF 6.21)
• Madany MM, Zinta G, Abuelsoud W, Hozzein WN, Selim S, Asard H and Abd Elgawad H (2020) Hormonal seed-priming improves tomato resistance against broomrape infection. Journal of Plant Physiology 250:153184. (IF 3.69)
• Yang X, Liu Y, Zhang H, Wang J, Zinta G, Xie S, Zhu W and Nie W-F (2020) Genome-wide identification of circular RNAs in response to low-temperature stress in tomato leaves. Frontiers in Genetics 11:1336. (IF 4.77)
• Zinta G*, AbdElgawad H, Peshev D, Weedon JT, Van den Ende W, Nijs I, Janssens IA, Beemster GT and Asard H (2018) Dynamics of metabolic responses to periods of combined heat and drought in Arabidopsis thaliana under ambient and elevated atmospheric CO₂. Journal of Experimental Botany 69:2159-2170. (IF 7.30)
• He L, Wu W, Zinta G, Yang L, Wang D, Liu R, Zhang H, Zheng Z, Huang H, Zhang Q and Zhu J-K (2018) A naturally occurring epiallele associates with leaf senescence and local climate adaptation in Arabidopsis accessions. Nature Communications 9:1-11. (IF 17.69)
• Hamed SM, Zinta G, Klöck G, Asard H, Selim S and AbdElgawad H (2017) Zinc-induced differential oxidative stress and antioxidant responses in Chlorella sorokiniana and Scenedesmus acuminatus. Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety 140:256-263. (IF 7.13)
• AbdElgawad H^#, Zinta G^#, Hegab MM, Pandey R, Asard H and Abuelsoud W (2016) High salinity induces different oxidative stress and antioxidant responses in maize seedlings organs. Frontiers in Plant Science 7:276. (IF 6.63)
• Hamad I, AbdElgawad H, Al Jaouni S, Zinta G, Asard H, Hassan S, Hegab M, Hagagy N and Selim S (2015) Metabolic analysis of various date palm fruit (Phoenix dactylifera L.) cultivars from Saudi Arabia to assess their nutritional quality. Molecules 20:13620-13641. (IF 4.93)
• Sinha AK, AbdElgawad H, Zinta G, Dasan AF, Rasoloniriana R, Asard H, Blust R and De Boeck G (2015) Nutritional status as the key modulator of antioxidant responses induced by high environmental ammonia and salinity stress in European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax). PloS One 10:e0135091. (IF 3.75)
• Sinha AK, Zinta G, AbdElgawad H, Asard H, Blust R and De Boeck G (2015) High environmental ammonia elicits differential oxidative stress and antioxidant responses in five different organs of a model estuarine teleost (Dicentrarchus labrax). Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part C: Toxicology & Pharmacology 174:21-31. (IF 4.52)
• Pandey R, Dubey KK, Ahmad A, Nilofar R, Verma R, Jain V, Zinta G and Kumar V (2015) Elevated CO₂ improves growth and phosphorus utilization efficiency in cereal species under sub-optimal phosphorus supply. Journal of Plant Nutrition 38:1196-1217. (IF 2.28)
• AbdElgawad H, De Vos D, Zinta G, Domagalska MA, Beemster GT and Asard H (2015) Grassland species differentially regulate proline concentrations under future climate conditions: an integrated biochemical and modelling approach. New Phytologist 208:354-369. (IF 10.32)
• AbdElgawad H, Peshev D, Zinta G, Van den Ende W, Janssens IA and Asard H (2014) Climate extreme effects on the chemical composition of temperate grassland species under ambient and elevated CO₂: a comparison of fructan and non-fructan accumulators. PLoS One 9:e92044. (IF 3.75)
• Zinta G, AbdElgawad H, Domagalska MA, Vergauwen L, Knapen D, Nijs I, Janssens IA, Beemster GT and Asard H (2014) Physiological, biochemical, and genome‐wide transcriptional analysis reveals that elevated CO₂ mitigates the impact of combined heatwave and drought stress in Arabidopsis thaliana at multiple organizational levels. Global Change Biology 20:3670-3685. (IF 13.21)
• Sinha AK, AbdElgawad H, Giblen T, Zinta G, De Rop M, Asard H, Blust R and De Boeck G (2014) Anti-oxidative defences are modulated differentially in three freshwater teleosts in response to ammonia-induced oxidative stress. PLoS One 9:e95319. (IF 3.75)
• El-Soud WA, Hegab MM, AbdElgawad H, Zinta G and Asard H (2013) Ability of ellagic acid to alleviate osmotic stress on chickpea seedlings. Plant Physiology and Biochemistry 71:173-183. (IF 5.44)
• Hegab M, Abdelgawad H, Abdelhamed M, Hammouda O, Pandey R, Kumar V and Zinta G (2013) Effects of tricin isolated from jungle rice (Echinochloa colona L.) on amylase activity and oxidative stress in wild oat (Avena fatua L.). Allelopathy Journal 31:345. (IF 0.92)
• Sharma A, Zinta G, Rana S and Shirko P (2010) Molecular identification of sex in Hippophae rhamnoides L. using isozyme and RAPD markers. Forestry Studies in China 12:62-66. (IF NA)
• Suhasini H, Bhardwaj S, Rattan R, Kanwar K and Zinta G (2010) Inference on coat protein evolution of Lily Symptomless Carlavirus in India and abroad based on motifs study and phylogenetic analysis. Journal of Proteomics Bioinformatics 3:204-211. (IF NA)
• Shirkot P, Bhuria M and Zinta G (2009) Identification of gender in dioecious Hippophae salicifolia using isozyme as sex markers. Indian Journal of Forestry 32:231-237. (IF NA)
• Patial H, Shirkot P, Bhalla R and Zinta G (2007) Assessment of genetic variability in Carnation (Dianthus Caryophyllus Linn.) using isozymes as molecular markers. Journal of Ornamental Horticulture 10:78-84. (IF NA) 

Review Articles  

• Mali S, Dutta M, Zinta G*. Genome editing advancements in potato (Solanum tuberosum L.): operational challenges and solutions. Journal of Plant Biochemistry and Biotechnology. 2022 Dec 16:1-3. (IF 1.53)
• Satyakam, Zinta G, Singh RK, Kumar R. Cold adaptation strategies in plants—An emerging role of epigenetics and antifreeze proteins to engineer cold resilient plants. Frontiers in Genetics. 2022;13. (IF 4.77)
• Jaiswal V, Kakkar M, Kumari P, Zinta G*, Gahlaut V, Kumar S. Multifaceted roles of GRAS transcription factors in growth and stress responses in plants. iScience. 2022 Aug 28:105026. (IF 6.11)
• Gautam T, Dutta M, Jaiswal V, Zinta G, Gahlaut V and Kumar S (2022) Emerging roles of SWEET sugar transporters in plant development and abiotic stress responses. Cells. (IF 7.67)
• Chourasia NK, More S, Kumar A, Kumar D, Singh B, Bhardwaj V, Kumar A, Das SK, Singh RK, Zinta G*, Tiwari RK, Lal MK. (2022) Salinity tolerance mechanisms in underground vegetable crops – A review. Planta. (IF 4.54)
• Lal MK, Tiwari RK, Gahlaut V, Mangal V, Kumar A, Singh MP, Paul V, Kumar S, Singh B, Zinta G*. Physiological and molecular insights on wheat responses to heat stress. Plant Cell Reports. 2021 Sep 20:1-8. (IF 4.96)
• Tiwari RK, Lal MK, Kumar R, Chourasia KN, Naga KC, Kumar D, Das SK and Zinta G* (2021) Mechanistic insights on melatonin‐mediated drought stress mitigation in plants. Physiologia Plantarum 172:1212-1226. (IF 5.08)
• Gahlaut V, Zinta G, Jaiswal V and Kumar S (2020) Quantitative epigenetics: a new avenue for crop improvement. Epigenomes 4:25. (IF NA)
• Srivastava AK, Lu Y, Zinta G, Lang Z and Zhu J-K (2018) UTR-dependent control of gene expression in plants. Trends in Plant Science 23:248-259. (IF 22.01)
• Zinta G*, Khan A, AbdElgawad H, Verma V and Srivastava AK (2016) Unveiling the redox control of plant reproductive development during abiotic stress. Frontiers in Plant Science 7:700. (IF 6.63)
• AbdElgawad H, Zinta G^#, Beemster GT, Janssens IA and Asard H (2016) Future climate CO₂ levels mitigate stress impact on plants: increased defense or decreased challenge? Frontiers in Plant Science 7:556. (IF 6.63)
• Pandey R, Zinta G, AbdElgawad H, Ahmad A, Jain V and Janssens IA (2015) Physiological and molecular alterations in plants exposed to high [CO₂] under phosphorus stress. Biotechnology Advances 33:303-316. (IF 17.60)  

Book Chapters/Protocols  

• Dutta M, Singh RK, Zinta G*. Genomic Approaches to Improve Abiotic Stress Tolerance in Apple (Malus× domestica). In Genomic Designing for Abiotic Stress Resistant Fruit Crops 2022 (pp. 1-17). Springer, Cham.
• Kundu P, Goel K, Zinta G* (2022) Nutritional imbalance in plants under rising atmospheric CO₂, in Plant Nutrition and Food Security in the Era of Climate Change pp 513-536, Academic Press.
• Miki D^#, Zinta G^#, Zhang W, Peng F, Feng Z and Zhu J-K (2021) CRISPR/Cas9-based genome editing toolbox for Arabidopsis thaliana, in Arabidopsis Protocols pp 121-146, Springer.
• Khan A and Zinta G* (2016) Drought stress and chromatin: an epigenetic perspective, in Drought Stress Tolerance in Plants, Vol 2 pp 571-586, Springer. 

—

Looking forward to building a scientific team of highly motivated and innovative researchers. If you have your own independent Ph.D./PostDoc fellowship or want to explore such options — you are welcome to get in touch with me via email.

Research Group Members: (Dr. Gaurav Zinta,  Komal Goel, Pravesh Kundu, Madhushree Dutta, Vidhi Raturi, Surbhi Mali, Shiwali Thakur, Dr. Asha Kiran, Sanjeet Kumar, and Narender Kumar)

1) Komal Goel is a Ph.D. research scholar. She has qualified CSIR-NET-JRF 2019 with an All India Rank (AIR) of 83. She did her schooling at St. John’s School, Faridabad, Haryana. She did B.Sc. Botany from the University of Delhi, and M.Sc. in Botany from Dolphin Institute of Biomedical & Natural Sciences, Dehradun. Her dissertation work was on "Phytochemical and antioxidant activities of citrus fruit juices." Also, she worked as a trainee for three months in the project entitled "Propagation and management of bamboo" under the Green Skill Development Program of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, GOI. 

The key area of her research interest includes climate change biology, plant stress physiology and plant reproductive biology. In her Ph.D., she is exploring the thermosensitivity of C3 and C4 pseudocereals of Amaranthaceae by implementing microscopic, transcriptomics and molecular biology tools. 

Her hobbies include trekking, reading, cooking, dancing, and exploring unexplored areas.  

2) Pravesh Kundu is a Ph.D. research scholar.  She qualified for CSIR-UGC-NET-JRF in 2019 with an All India Rank (AIR) of 94, and qualified for other national exams (GATE and CUCET) as well. She did her schooling at Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Kaithal, Haryana. She did her B.Sc. and B.Ed. at Kurukshetra University, Haryana. She did her M.Sc. Botany from Punjabi University, Patiala. Her dissertation work was on "Taxonomic study on hyphomycetes of Chunni Kalan (Punjab)." 

The key areas of her research interest include plant stress physiology and plant molecular biology. In her Ph.D., she is conducting nutritional genomics studies in pseudocereals of Amaranthaceae and will use approaches from metabolomics, transcriptomics and molecular biology. 

Her hobbies are reading, cooking and trekking. 

3) Madhushree Dutta is a Ph.D. research scholar and holds a UGC-JRF fellowship and qualified for other national exams (GATE and CUCET) as well. 

She earned M.Sc. Botany (Hons.) from the University of Calcutta with a specialization in plant physiology, biochemistry and molecular biology.  Her M.Sc. dissertation was on “Regulation of carbohydrate metabolism by arsenic in two rice cultivars and their possible alteration by phosphate.” After M.Sc., she worked as a Project JRF for two years on a UGC-sponsored project, “Utilization of brassica seed meal as a bioherbicide for weed management in wheat.” So far, she has published one research article and a review article. 

Madhushree received the Honorable Dr. Parimal Kumar Roy Memorial Award and Dr. Ramendra Krishna Sarkar Memorial Award for her academic records.  

The key areas of research interest include plant stress physiology, genomics, and climate change biology. In her Ph.D., she is dissecting molecular mechanisms underlying high temperature responses in potato with emphasis on tuberization process.   

During her leisure hours, she devotes time educating the upcoming aspirants preparing for various life science exams by incorporating smart strategies into the education system and making learning more exciting and fun. She also loves to write and currently working on a memoir.  

4) Vidhi Raturi is a Ph.D. research scholar and has qualified for Joint CSIR-UGC NET JRF 2019 with an All-India Rank (AIR) of 83 and GATE-XL in 2020. 

She did her schooling at Saraswati Vidya Mandir Inter College, Avas-Vikas, Rishikesh, Uttarakhand. She did her M.Sc. in Botany from Pt. LMS Govt. PG College, Rishikesh (affiliated to HNB Garhwal University, Srinagar Garhwal), Uttarakhand. Her dissertation work was on “Jatropha curcas: A Future Sustainable Fuel”. Also, she has done a 7-week course on "Understanding Plant I- What a Plant Knows" & a 4-week course on "Understanding Plants II- Fundamentals of Plant Biology", delivered by Prof. Daniel Chamovitz of Tel Aviv University, Israel. 

Vidhi received the Scholarship for Higher Education (SHE) component under INSPIRE SCHEME of the Department of Science and Technology (DST) for 5 years during her graduation and post-graduation for her excellent academic records. 

The key areas of her research interest include plant signaling & behavior, sensory plant biology, molecular plant stress biology and climate change biology. 

In her Ph.D., she is elucidating high-temperature sensing and signaling networks in Arabidopsis thaliana. Also, she will dissect the adaptive mechanisms underlying recurrent heat stress exposure (heat stress memory). 

In her spare time, she enjoys photography, watching cricket, reading books, and traveling. Apart from this, she likes to listen to folk music from different regions of India and explore various cultures and traditions of India.

5) Surbhi Mali is a Ph.D. research scholar in the lab of Dr. Gaurav Zinta at CSIR-IHBT, Palampur, H.P.

Surbhi qualified DBT-BET 2021 (Category-I) and ICAR-SRF 2021 with AIR-88 in Plant Biotechnology.

She did her schooling at Ascent International Senior Secondary School, Udaipur, Rajasthan. She did her B.Sc. in Agriculture (Honours) from Rajasthan College of Agriculture, MPUAT, Rajasthan and her M.Sc. in Agricultural Biotechnology from CSK Himachal Pradesh Krishi Vishvavidyalaya, Palampur, H.P. Her dissertation work was on “Identification and characterization of sugar transport genes in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)”.

Surbhi was a recipient of the Scholarship for Higher Education (SHE) component under INSPIRE SCHEME of the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and University Rank Merit Scholarship (for top rankers) for four years (2015-2019) during her graduation.
She also qualified DBT-JNU-CEEB in 2019 with AIR-27.

The key areas of her research interest include sugar signaling & metabolism, source-sink dynamics, epigenetic regulation and plant molecular biology.

In her Ph.D., she is dissecting the regulation of source-sink relations under environmental fluctuations in potato (Solanum tuberosum).

During her spare time, she likes to teach GAT-B aspirants. She also loves dancing, painting, crafting and traveling.

6) Shiwali Thakur is a Project Associate in the lab of Dr. Gaurav Zinta at CSIR-IHBT, Palampur, H.P.

Shiwali did her schooling at D.A.V Public School Gohju, Kangra, H.P. She did her M.Sc. in Biotechnology from Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) Ludhiana. She was an ICAR nominee. Her M.Sc. dissertation work was on “Allele mining on phosphorus starvation tolerance (PSTOL1) in wild species of rice", which led to a publication in Frontiers in Plant Science.

The key areas of her research interest include plant stress biology, plant molecular biology and climate change biology.

While working as a project associate at CSIR-IHBT, she is exploring phosphate starvation stress responses in C4 pseudocereal grain amaranths (Amaranth spp.).

She enjoys reading novels, cooking different cuisines and playing badminton. She also likes to listen to the music of different genres like qawwali, rock, jazz, etc., and explore various cultures and traditions.

7) Dr. Asha Kiran is a SERB-NPDF (PostDoc) in the lab of Dr. Gaurav Zinta at CSIR-IHBT, Palampur, H.P.

Asha has qualified GATE (Graduate Aptitude Test Engineering) examination 2013.

She did an M.Sc. in Biotechnology from Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology, Patiala, Panjab. Her M.Sc. dissertation work was on “Studies on Genetic diversity of Jatropha curcas L. genotypes by RAPD and ISSR molecular markers”. She did her Ph.D. in Agricultural Biotechnology from CSK Himachal  Pradesh  Krishi Vishvavidyalaya, Palampur, H.P. Her Ph.D. dissertation was entitled “Elucidation of molecular mechanisms governing cold tolerance during the reproductive stage in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)”.

Asha is a recipient of the University Rank Merit Scholarship in her Ph.D. program. She is also a recipient of the UGC-Rajiv Gandhi National Fellowship (RGNF) during her Ph. D. (2015-2019).                                                                                                                             

The key area of her research interest includes studying the impact of abiotic stresses on plant reproductive development biology and plant molecular biology.

In her post-doctoral program, she is dissecting the heat sensitivity of different species of C4 grain amaranths by using multi-omics approaches.

So far she has published papers in the Plant Cell & Environment, Environmental and Experimental Botany, Antioxidants, Journal of Genetics, etc.

8) Sanjeet Kumar (Lab Technician)

9) Narender Kumar (Lab Assistant) 

                                           ALUMNI of Integrative Plant AdaptOmics Lab (iPAL)

Name: Aryaman Dewan

iPAL, CSIR-IHBT tenure: 22^nd March 2021 to 26th March 2021 (Trainee)

Research Topic pursued at iPAL, CSIR-IHBT: Basic hands-on training in plant molecular biology

Current Position: Research Assistant

Current University, Country: Purdue University, United States

Current Area of Study/Work: Biology (major) and Bioinformatics (minor). Researching on the protein expression of interleukin 27

Name: Paras Sharma

iPAL, CSIR-IHBT tenure:24^th August 2021 to 14^th June 2022 (Trainee)

Research Topic pursued at iPAL, CSIR-IHBT: Examine the physiological and molecular aspects of photosynthesis and tuberization processes in crops.

Current Position: Research Intern

Current University, Country: Plant Science Dual Master Program at the Université Grenoble Alpes, France and Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy.

Current Area of Study/Work: Chloroplast Biology.

Name: Roshankumar Namdeo Jadhav

iPAL, CSIR-IHBT tenure: 17^th Dec 2021 to 24^th Dec 2022 (Project Associate)

Research Topic Pursued at iPAL, CSIR-IHBT: Transgenerational heat stress adaptation in Arabidopsis Current Position: PursuingPh.D.

Current University, Country: University of Tasmania, Australia

Current Area of Study/Work: Circadian clock influencing stomatal movement in non-flowering plants

Name: Ayush Kumar

iPAL, CSIR-IHBT tenure:   7^th Feb 2022 to 31^st July 2022 (Trainee)

Research Topic pursued at iPAL, CSIR-IHBT: Molecular cloning of seed-shattering genes from pseudocereal of Amaranthaceae

Current Position: Pursuing M.Tech.

Current University, Country: National Institute of Technology Karnataka (NITK), Karnataka, India

Current Area of Study/Work: Industrial Biotechnology

Name: Dipanjali Kachhap

iPAL, CSIR-IHBT tenure: 3^rd June 2022 to 3^rd August 2022 (Trainee)

Research Topic pursued at iPAL, CSIR-IHBT: Molecular cloning of HY5

Current Position: 5^th Year Integrated M.Sc., National Institute of Science Education and Research Bhubaneswar, Odisha

Current Area of Study/Work: Life Science

Name:  Aman Thakur

iPAL, CSIR-IHBT tenure:   1^st Nov 2022 to 30^th May 2023 (Trainee)

Research Topic pursued at iPAL, CSIR-IHBT: Molecular cloning and characterization of squalene synthase from grain amaranth

Current Position: Research Intern

Current University, Country: Ariel University, Israel

Current Area of Study/Work: PursuingPh.D. on Grape Vine (Vitis vinifera)

Name: Anun Pandit

iPAL, CSIR-IHBT tenure: 13^th July 2022 to 6^th September 2022 (Trainee)

Research Topic pursued at iPAL, CSIR-IHBT: Cloning of Heat Shock Factor (HSF) of Amaranth Grain

Current Position: Recently completed M.Sc. Biotechnology, Maharaja Agrasen University, Solan, H.P

Current Area of Study/Work: Preparing for JRF and other exams

Name: Anusha

iPAL, CSIR-IHBT tenure: 6^th June 2023 to 17^th July 2023 (Trainee)

Research Topic pursued at iPAL, CSIR-IHBT: Heat Shock Factor A2 (HSFA2) from Potato: Expression analysis and molecular cloning

Current Position: B.Sc. 3rd year

Current University, Country: Panjab University, Chandigarh

Current Area of Study/Work: Biotechnology

Name: Shubham Sen

iPAL, CSIR-IHBT tenure: 3^rd July 2023 to 13^th September 2023 (Trainee)

Research Topic pursued at iPAL, CSIR-IHBT: Investigating the allelopathic potential of peppermint oil on Arabidopsis, and molecular cloning of MYB transcription factor

Current Position: 3rd Semester M.Sc. St. Thomas College, Bhilai, Chhattisgarh

Current Area of Study/Work: Biotechnology

Name: Kartikeya Dubey

iPAL, CSIR-IHBT tenure:   22^nd December 2022 to 22^nd March 2023 (Trainee)

Research Topic pursued at iPAL, CSIR-IHBT: Molecular cloning of cell death gene from Arabidopsis

Current Position: Completed M.Sc. Biotechnology from Shoolini Institute of Life Sciences & Business Management, Solan, HP

Current Area of Study/Work: Preparing for JRF and other exams

Name: Devashish Verma

iPAL, CSIR-IHBT tenure:   3^rd July 2023 to 2^nd August 2023 (Trainee)

Research Topic pursued at iPAL, CSIR-IHBT: Grafting of heat contrasting potato genotypes

Current Position: Pursuing M.E. in Biotechnology

Current University, Country: BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus, Rajasthan

Current Area of Study/Work: Applied Plant Biotechnology

Name: Rahul Sharma

iPAL, CSIR-IHBT tenure: 16^th January 2023 to 12^th June 2023 (Trainee)

Research Topic pursued at iPAL, CSIR-IHBT: Dissecting redox regulation under high temperature in potato (Solanum tuberosum L.)

Current Position: Completed M.Sc. Biotechnology

Current University, Country: Chandigarh University, Punjab

Current Area of Study/Work: Preparing for exams