Genetics 

Department of Genetics and plant breeding is an exciting and ever green subject on  account of its relevance at the time of Climate change and narrow downed  genetic diversity in cultivated crop species. It is a compulsion particularly for agricultural graduates  to understand the fundamental genetic principles to opt out various carrier option from perusing  higher studies in the same field  as well as to choose options in other fields  like Biotechnology, Bioinformatics , biochemistry and conservation biology . Our department focuses on teaching and practical aspects of Transmission Genetics, cytogenetics  and advanced molecular genetics

With the advent of Molecular techniques and Genome sequence information, the applications of this knowledge is just begun and future prospects are much promising, along with traditional breeding approach the New breeding techniques (NBT) which is aided with DNA Markers improves accuracy to develop new varieties to suit not only different climatic conditions but also agronomic traits with farm mechanisation friendly traits.

It is time for the new generation Geneticists and plant breeders  to improve advanced crop varieties with broad insect pest and disease resistance to avoid frequent pest and disease outbreak, the changing climate has unforeseen consequences of emerging minor pest into major pest and sudden outbreak.

Plant Breeding

Plant domestication started some 10,000 years ago by farmers selecting the best performing plants in a field. It was not until the discovery of Mendel’s laws of heredity in the nineteenth century turned the first plant breeding efforts from an art into science, and specialised farmer-breeders emerged, building a business concept on their efforts. From that point in time, scientific breakthroughs in agricultural and biological sciences have accelerated. With an increased understanding of plant biology and plant genes, plant breeders have constantly improved their breeding tools to include a wide variety of breeding methods. The development of newer plant breeding methods did not lead to a complete replacement of the older ones. Depending on the problems plant breeders must solve, they must be able to choose the tools that enable them to reach their breeding goals in the most efficient and specific way.

Conventional plant breeding methods, transgenesis or newer plant breeding methods are all essential components of the plant breeders’ toolbox. Building on the mechanisms created by nature, the latest innovations in plant breeding methods simply achieve the relevant breeding results in less time and with greater precision.

The efficient and targeted development of improved plant varieties is important to fight new plant pests, insects or diseases. These can be devastating to crops and lead to huge pre-harvest losses.

Other plant varieties provide quality improvements, such as better taste (e.g. in fruits and vegetables), processing advantages or nutritional enhancements, such as desirable proteins or lower saturated fats.

With that, plant breeding innovation contributes to providing sufficient and healthy food supply from plant varieties with improved characteristics

Sourced from: https://plantbreeding.eu

Essential courses

Principles of Genetics                                                    3(2+1)

Principles of Plant Breeding                                       3(2+1)

Principles of plant Biotechnology                           3(2+1)

Breeding of Field and Horticultural Crops          3(2+1)

Principles of Seed Technology                                 3(2+1)

Elective/ Experiential learning courses

Advanced Seed Technology

Tissue culture and Micro-propagation techniques

Industrial attachment with any of the following industries/Organisations

Seed industries/ companies

Biotechnological industries/companies

Tissue culture laboratories

 Bio-Pesticide industries