Education:

Ph. D (Biotechnology) - I.I.T, Roorkee; M.Sc. (Plant Breeding and Genetics)- RAU, Pusa; B.Sc Ag. & AH. - GBPUA&T, Pant Nagar.

Positions held:

Assistant Biotechnologist, PAU, Ludhiana, 6.9.2012- till date; Post Doctoral Fellow, North Carolina State University, U.S.A, Oct, 2010- Aug, 2012; Research Fellow, I.I.T, Roorkee, Sept, 2009- Sept. 2010

Field of Specialization: Molecular Biology, Wide Hybridization, Molecular Breeding

Research Interests:

1. Rice molecular breeding
2. Wide hybridization and marker aided selection
3. Genomics of crops

Google Scholar:https://scholar.google.co.in/citations?hl=en&user=OgMJ2BcAAAAJ

Research Projects:

1. SERB Project on Fine mapping, cloning and validation of brown plant hopper resistance introgressed from Oryza nivara into O. sativa L (2019-2022)
2. DBT Project on Pyramiding of genes contributing to the resistance to Brown Plant Hopper (Biotype 4 ) in rice (2019-2021)
3. DBT Project on Allele mining for Phosphorus Starvation Tolerance gene (PSTOL1) in Oryza rufipogon and its transfer to elite rice cultivars using marker aided selection (2017-2021)
4. DBT-BioCare Project on Molecular Breeding for improvement of tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses, yield and quality traits in crops (2015-2021)
5. ICAR Project on Incentivizing Research in Agriculture- Molecular Genetic analysis of resistance/tolerance to different stresses in rice, wheat, chickpea and mustered – Rice Component (2015-2025)
6. SERB Project on Genomic assisted mapping and introgression of root knot nematode resistance gene (s) from African rice species O. glaberrima to the Asian rice O. sativa (Co-PI) (2017-2020)

Selected Research Publications :

1. Malik P, Huang M, Neelam K*, Bhatia D, Kaur R, Yadav B et al. Genotyping-by-sequencing based investigation of population structure and genome wide association studies for seven agronomically important traits in a set of 346 Oryza rufipogon accessions. Rice (N Y). 2022;15(1):37..
2. Kaur P, Neelam K*, Sarao PS, Babbar A, Kumar K, Vikal Y et al. Molecular mapping and transfer of a novel brown planthopper resistance gene bph42 from Oryza rufipogon (Griff.) to cultivated rice (Oryza sativa L.). Mol Biol Rep. 2022;49(9):8597-606.
3. Neelam K*, Kumar K, Kaur A, Kishore A, Kaur P, Babbar A et al. High-resolution mapping of quantitative trait locus (QTLs) conferring resistance to false smut disease in rice. J Appl Genet. 2022;63(1):35-45.
4. Aggarwal SK, Malik P, Neelam K*, Kumar K, Kaur R, Lore JS et al. Genome-wide association mapping for identification of sheath blight resistance loci from wild rice Oryza rufipogon. Euphytica. 2022;218(10):144.
5. Neelam K, Mahajan R, Gupta V, Bhatia D, Gill BK, Komal R et al. High-resolution genetic mapping of a novel bacterial blight resistance gene xa45(t) identified from Oryza glaberrima and transferred to Oryza sativa. Theor Appl Genet. 2020;133(3):689-705.

Book Chapters

1. Neelam K, Kishor Sinha, Harcharan Singh Dhaliwal, Kuldeep Singh. 2016. “Introgression and exploitation of QTLs for yield and yield components from related wild species to rice cultivars". Gene Pool Diversity and Crop Improvement – Volume 1. Springer Verlag book. page- 171-202.
2. Kuldeep Singh, Kumari Neelam, Amanpreet Kaur, Karminderbir Kaur. 2016. Inter-specific hybridization in rice: limitations and opportunities. Chapter in a book “Broadening the genetic base of grain cereals” Springer.

Awards/Honours/Distinctions:

1. National Doctoral Fellowship (NDF) by All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).
2. Junior Research Fellowship by Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).
3. India National Eligibility Test (NET) for Lecturer ship award conducted by Agricultural Scientist Recruitment Board (ASRB).
4. RAU fellowship in M.Sc.
5. ICAR fellowship in B.Sc.