Profile
Dr. Hasthi Ram obtained his Ph.D. degree (2012) from National Institute of Plant Genome Research (NIPGR), New Delhi by studying light signalling in Arabidopsis. Then he did his postdoctoral studies (2012-2016) at European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Heidelberg, Germany, where he studied organ development in Arabidopsis. Afterwards, he worked as DST-INSPIRE Faculty (2017-2020) at National Agri-Food Biotechnology Institute (NABI), Mohali to understand nutrient accumulation in rice grain. In 2020 he joined NIPGR as a Staff Scientist and developing genome-edited resources in rice. Among the notable recognitions, he has been awarded with Young Scientist Platinum Jubilee Award from the National Academy of Sciences, India (NASI) (2019), DST-INSPIRE Faculty award by DST, Govt. of India (2017) and NET- JRF by CSIR, Govt. of India (2007).
Current Focus Areas
Using CRISPR-Cas9 library approach for developing large-scale genome-edited populations in high-yielding Indica rice varieties and their screening for identifying superior lines for grain yield, nutritional quality and stress tolerance.
Developing novel methods for tissue culture free rice transformation, DNA Knock-in through SDN2 mediated genome-editing approaches, Prime editing.
Improving nutritional value of the white rice through understanding molecular mechanism underlying spatial distribution of different nutrients, particularly minerals, in rice grain.
Increasing stability of rice bran upon storage through genetic modifications.
Selected Publications
Shekhawat PK, Sardar S, Yadav B, Salvi P, Soni P, Ram, H* (2023) Meta-analysis of transcriptomics studies identifies novel attributes and set of genes involved in iron homeostasis in rice. Functional & Integrative Genomics 23, 336. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10142-023-01265-z
Bansal, S, Sardar, S, Sinha, K, Bhunia R, Katoch M, Sonah H, Deshmukh R, Ram H* (2021) Identification and molecular characterization of rice bran-specific lipases. Plant Cell Reports 40, 1215–1228 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00299-021-02714-4 (*Corresponding author)
Ram H*, Singh A, Katoch M, Kaur R, Sardar S, Palia S, Satyam R, Sonah S, Deshmukh R, Pandey A, Gupta I, Sharma TR (2021) Dissecting the nutrient partitioning mechanism in rice grain using spatially resolved gene expression profiling. Journal of experimental Botany 72(6) 2212–2230, https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/eraa536 (*Corresponding author)
Ram H, Sahadevan S, Caggiano MP, Yu X, Ohno C, Heisler MG (2020) An integrated analysis of cell-type specific gene expression reveals targets of REVOLUTA and KANADI1 in the Arabidopsis shoot apical meristem. PLoS Genetics 16(4): e1008661 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1008661
Ram H, Priya P, Jain M, Chattopadhyay S. (2014). Genome-wide DNA binding of GBF1 is modulated by its heterodimerizing protein partners, HY5 and HYH. Molecular Plant 7, 448-51 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/mp/sst143