Biochemistry | SKN College of Agriculture, Jobner

Department of Biochemistry

Introduction

In view of importance of Biochemistry in agriculture research and teaching, a separate Department of Biochemistry was established in 1989 with Dr. Vimal Sharma as its first Head of the Department and Presently Dr. G. K. Mittal, Assistant Professor (Biochemistry) working as Incharge of the Department since May, 2016. Department of Biochemistry shifted to a new building constructed with financial support from ICAR in 1998 and a new lab with financial support from Govt. of Rajasthan in 2013. The department imparts education in Biochemistry both at Undergraduate and Postgraduate levels. At under graduate level one Biochemistry course is offered according to V Dean’s committee – Fundamentals of Plant Biochemistry and Biotechnology. M. Sc. (Ag.) Biochemistry programme was conducted during session 2013-14 to 2015-16 (08 students completed M. Sc. Degree) after that it was deferred due to lack of faculty. The department has one well equipped UG lab which can accommodate 60 students, one PG lab, one instruments lab having high speed refrigerated centrifuge, microfuge, gel electrophoresis for proteins and nucleic acids, UV-visible spectrophotometer, Environmental shaker, Bacterial incubator, BOD incubator, -20 Fridge, Fibre analysis system, Micro-kjeldahl unit. Other facilities like PCR, Gel documentation system, HPLC, GC are available in central laboratory located in the same building. Now the department offers three minor/supporting courses at M.Sc. level (BIOCHEM-511-Plant Biochemistry in semester I and in Semester II, BIOCHEM-521-Basic Biochemistry & BIOCHEM-522, Techniques in Biochemistry), one at Ph.D. level (BIOCHEM-531-Biochemistry of Biotic and Abiotic Stresses) and the department is also involved in PG and Ph.D. research activities of the PG students by providing laboratory facilities and advised regarding biochemical, Molecular and quality evaluation analysis.

Aims and Objectives

Imparting education and training in modern biochemistry both at Undergraduate and Postgraduate levels.
Guiding M. Sc. (Ag) Biochemistry and other M. Sc. and Ph. D. students for their research work
Conducting research work on Biochemical and Molecular Biological aspects in crop plants.
Metabolomics studies in crop plants.
Quality Evaluation of cereals, pulses, oilseeds and seed spices.

Facilities or Infrastructure

The department has one UG lab which can accommodate 60 students, one PG lab, one instruments lab having high speed refrigerated centrifuge, microfuge, gel electrophoresis for proteins and nucleic acids, UV-visible spectrophotometer, Environmental shaker, Bacterial incubator, BOD incubator, -20 Fridge, Fibre Analysis (FibroTron) system, Micro Kjeldahl Equipment, Soxhlet System. Other facilities like PCR, Gel documentation system, HPLC, GC are available in central laboratory housed in the same building.

Name: Dr. Girish Kumar Mittal

Designation: Assistant Professor & Incharge

Specialization: Plant Biochemistry, Plant Biotechnology, Molecular Biology

Contact: 9413195665

Email: girish.biochem@sknau.ac.in

AEIS Profile Link: https://aeis.icar.gov.in/GIRISH2307

Staff Information

Name: Dr. Heena Saheewala

Designation: Assistant Professor

Specialization: Plant Biotechnilogy, M

Contact: 7732866999

Email: heena.pbiotech@sknau.ac.in

AEIS Profile Link:

Name: Ms. Rajni Choudhary

Designation: Lab Assistant

Specialization:

Contact: 9216288891

Email: crajni464@gmail.com

Achievements, Recommendations and Achievements

Number of M.Sc. Ag. Biochemistry Degree Completed: 07 students.

Completed Projects/Schemes in detail

‘Biochemical aspect of heavy metal ion toxicity in wheat’ sponsored by the University Cess fund, 1991-1993.
‘Isolation and cloning of gene encoding salinity resistance from a soil borne microbe’ funded by ICAR, New Delhi, May 2000 to Aug 2002
All India Coordinated Research Projects on Seed Spices – On-going. One Assistant Professor’s (Dr. G. K. Mittal) worked from July 2012 to March, 2018.

Recommendations and Findings

(A) Application of polyamines in management of water stress

(i) Putrescine (0.1 mM foliar spray) increased drought tolerance in wheat by decreasing degree of membrane injury, increasing relative water content and accumulating active metabolites. It also increased the grain yield, biological yield, test weight and harvest index under water stress conditions. Putrescine also ameliorated the effect of drought stress in cow pea C-152 to some extent by enhancing transpirations rate, stomatal conductance, and photosynthetic efficiency. This suggests that putrescine could be useful for inducing drought tolerance

(ii) The drought tolerant genotype of wheat C-306 exhibited lower accumulation of hydrogen peroxide on account of increased activities of super oxide dismutase, peroxidase and catalase showing that these enzymes could be used as drought tolerant markers in crop plants.

(B) Application of microbes in management of salinity stress:

(i) Highly salt tolerant (growing very well in LB medium containing up to 6% NaCl), Gram positive, aerobic and rod shaped bacterium was isolated from native soil having EC 2.2 and pH 7.8.Through morphological and biochemical tests, the bacterium was identified as Bacillus coagulans and the bacterial strain deposited in Institute of Microbial technology, Chandigarh for future use. The study showed that the bacterium was salt excluder and had proline mediated osmoregulatory mechanism for its salt tolerance.

(ii) The salt tolerant bacterial gene was isolated through genomic library prepared in ZAP expression vector, sequenced (3.8 kb) and using BLASTP nr-na database characterized as ornithine amino transferase (ORF of 393 amino acids) which is known to play an important role in biosynthesis of proline – an important osmolyte involved in salt tolerance of many species of bacteria and plants. The finding offers excellent opportunity for developing salt tolerant transgenic plants. The gene sequence submitted to DNA Data Bank, Japan

Scientific Awards and Honors received by the faculty members

German Academic Exchange Service Fellowship (DAAD) at Bernhard Nocht Institute of Tropical Medicine, Hamburg to Dr M L Sharma
Biotechnology National Associateship, DBT, Govt. of India to Dr V K Yadav, 1989-1990
Japan International Research Center for Agricultural sciences (JIRCAS) Fellowship to Dr V K Yadav, 2001-02
Visiting Scientist, Australian Council for International Agricultural Research, Govt of Australia to Dr V K Yadav, March 3-20, 2000
Post Doctoral Fellowship in NIH funded research project at Lerners Research Institute, Cleveland, USA to Dr V K Yadav, 2002-03
Young scientist award for the best poster presentation in National Seminar ‘Emerging trends in Chemistry-Biology Interface to Dr. G. K. Mittal, 2011.
Dr. G. K. Mittal got Appreciation award by Hon’ble VC for best AICRP on Spices centre in 2016 on the occasion of republic day.
Dr. G. K Mittal, awarded for best oral presentation on “Chemo-profiling of volatile oil in cumin (Cuminum cyminum L.) Varieties” in two days National seminar on “Seed Spices for enhancing farmer’s prosperity and livelihood security” jointly organized by ICAR-NRC on seed spices, Ajmer and Directorate of Arecanut and Spices Development, Calicut on January 21 & 22, 2017 held at NRCSS, Ajmer (Rajasthan).
Dr G. K. Mittal, Visited as visiting scientist at Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Science, Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth, UK for three months overseas training on “Metabolomics of PMiGAP in Pearl Millet samples for health benefiting traits” from 14-6-2023 to 13-9-2023 under ICAR-IDP-NAHEP.
Dr. Heena Saheewala, Received YOUNG SCIENTIST AWARD and BEST Ph.D. THESIS AWARD on the ocassion of International Conference ”Innovative Approaches in Agriculture, Horticulture and Allied Sciences” jointly organized by SGT University, Gurugram, ISAHRD, Chandigarh and Just Agriculture.