The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research - Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology (CSIR-IHBT) faculty named Dr Vijay Gahlaut has been working to produce heat-tolerant varieties of wheat crop that would ensure longer sustenance of the crops in hotter areas.
Dr Gahlaut explained that excessive exposure to heat causes reduction in agriculture output due to lack of healthy wheat crops threatening the food supply across the world.
To solve this problem, Dr Gahlaut is exploring the epigenetic route to modify gene expression in a manner that is stably transmitted but does 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. This would help in cultivating crops that are resistant to heat and will be saved from any temperature-related damage from being cultivated to being transported to the factories.
He has also published a journal named ‘Genomics' in which he explained the responses of genetically modified crops to heat and temperature based on extensive experiments.
Dr Gahlaut is also an Inspire Faculty Fellow of the Department of Science and Technology (DST) under the Union Government. Under this programme the government funds the innovations and research work by select individuals to help them showcase their projects at national and international levels. The individuals for this project are being selected on the basis of research proposals and specimens provided by the participants.