Education: B.Sc., HPU, Shimla; M.Sc., PAU, Ludhiana; Ph.D., PAU, Ludhiana

Positions held: Assistant Professor, PAU Ludhiana, Sr. Wheat Breeder, Principal Wheat Breeder, PAU Ludhiana

Field of Specialization: Wheat Breeding & Genetics

Present Research Interests/Projects:

Research Interests: (Maximum upto three areas of interest)

1. Development & commercialization of end product specific, nutritionally enhanced wheat varieties combining yield potential & disease resistance
2. Breeding disease resistant, high yielding wheat varieties for timely sown irrigated, late sown and rain fed conditions.
3. Characterization, maintenance and exploitation of exotic and wild germplasm. Genetic analysis of economically important traits and gene introgression from wild relatives of wheat.

Ongoing Projects:

1. Molecular breeding for improvement of tolerance to biotic and abiotic stress, yield and quality Traits in crops-Wheat (ICAR)
2. Characterization and evaluation of wheat germplasm for abiotic stresses (DBT).
3. Addressing Food Security Through Nutritionally Enriched Improved Cultivars and Technologies for SwasthBharat, Under Promotion of University Research and Scientific Excellence (PURSE) Grant (DST)
4. Development and Integration of Advanced Genomic Technologies for targeted breeding Subproject: Breeding high yielding quality wheats using nested populations and and SNP-chip (DBT)

Projects Accomplished:

1. Transforming India's Green Revolution by Research and Empowerment for Sustainable Food Supplies (TIGR2ESS) FP3- Heat and Drought Resilience in Wheat
2. Aegilops speltoidesas a source of resistance against spot blotch of wheat
3. Searching landraces for weed competitiveness diversity to be exploited in wheat organic farming.
4. Exploiting phenology and adaptation to improve nitrogen use efficiency in wheat

Selected Research Publications (maximum upto 5):

1. Padhy AK, Sharma A*, Sharma H, Srivastava P, Singh S, Kaur P, Kaur J, Kaur S, Chhuneja P and Bains NS. 2023. Combining high carotenoid, grain protein content and rust resistance in wheat for food and nutritional security. Front. Genet. 14:1075767. doi: 10.3389/fgene.2023.1075767 (NAAS:10.60)
2. Himanshu Sharma, Satinder Singh, M Shamshad, Asish Kumar Padhy, Ravneet Kaur, Lenika Kashyap, Puja Srivastava, G S Mavi, Satinder Kaur, Achla Sharma*, V S Sohu and N S Bains. 2022. Variability in iron, zinc, phytic acid and protein content in pre-breeding wheat germplasm under different water regimes. Plant Growth Regulation https://doi.org/10.1007/s10725-022-00943-5 (NAAS:9.41)
3. Sharma A*, Srivastava P, Mavi GS, Kaur S, Kaur J, Bala R, Singh TP, Sohu VS, Chhuneja P, Bains NS and Singh GP (2021) Resurrection of Wheat Cultivar PBW343 Using Marker-Assisted Gene Pyramiding for Rust Resistance. Front. Plant Sci. 12:570408. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2021.570408 (NAAS 11.75)
4. Asish Kumar Padhy, Parampreet Kaur, Satinder Singh, Lenika Kashyap &Achla Sharma* 2022: Colored wheat and derived products: key to global nutritional security, Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition, DOI: 10.1080/10408398.2022.2119366 (NAAS:17.18)
5. Sukhwinder Singh, A. Jighly, D. Sehgal, J. Burgueño, R. Joukhadar, S. K. Singh ,A. Sharma, P. Vikram, C. P. Sansaloni, V. Govindan, S. Bhavani, M. Randhawa , E. Solis Moya, S. Singh, N. Pardo, M. A. R. Arif, K. A. aghari, D. Basandrai, S. Shokat, , H. K Chaudhary, N. A. Saeed, A. K. Basandrai, L. Ledesma-Ramírez, V. S. Sohu , Muhammad Imtiaz, S. M. Ali, P. Wenzl, G. P. Singh and N. S. Bains. 2021. Direct introgression of untapped diversity into elite wheat lines. Nat Food. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-021-00380-z (IF: 20.43)

Awards/Honours/Distinctions:

• Best wheat breeding team award by ICAR