Indian Institute of Millets Research (IIMR)

Discipline: Biotechnology | Designation: Principal Scientist | At DSR Since: 2008

Email: rajendra@millets.res.in | Mobile: 09848186445

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Degree	Institute / University	Year of completion	Subject(s) with major field
Ph.D.	TNAU, Coimbatore	2001	Plant Breeding & Genetics
M.Sc. (Ag.)	TNAU, Coimbatore	1997	Plant Breeding & Genetics
B.Sc. (Ag.)	TNAU, Coimbatore	1994	Agriculture

Employment Record & Experience (Starting from the present position)

Designation	Organization	Institution & place of posting	Period (From-to)	Duration (years, months)
Principal Scientist	ICAR	ICAR – Indian Institute of Millets Research, Hyderabad	12 Sept., 2014 – continuing
Senior Scientist	ICAR	ICAR – Indian Institute of Millets Research, Hyderabad	12 Sep 2008 to 11 Sep 2014	6 years
Research Associate	ICAR	Directorate of Rice Research, Hyderabad	Aug 2004 to Aug 2008	4 years
Research Associate	CSIR	Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad	Feb 2001 to July 2004	3 years, 5 months
Senior Research Fellow	ICAR	Central Institute for Cotton Research, Regional Station, Coimbatore	Oct 2000 to Feb 2001	4 months

Development of sorghum cultivars for lignocellulosic biofuel production through marker-assisted pyramiding of brown midrib genes.
Identification of genomic regions associated with grain Fe & Zn and grain quality traits in sorghum.
Development of DNA markers in little and kodo millet.
Officer In-Charge, Off-Season Nursery (OSN), ICAR-IIMR, Warangal.

Developed low lignin sorghum in the genetic background of dual purpose sorghum varieties (CSV 20 and CSV 27) through marker-assisted gene pyramiding of brown midrib genes for further evaluation.
Identified 16 transcripts that were differentially expressed in hybrids and their parental lines. Also identified 10 grain yield heterosis-related genes in kharif sorghum through real-time PCR.
Developed genome-wide (GATA)n motif-based SSR markers and intron length polymorphism (ILP) markers in sorghum.
Identified 30 SSR markers having the potential for the prediction of grain yield heterosis in sorghum

Awarded a three-year research project under Rapid Grant for Young Investigators (RGYI) scheme by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Govt. of India during 2010.
Recognized by Osmania University to guide Ph.D. students in the Department of Genetics.
Member, Research Advisory Committee (RAC) of Agri Biotech Foundation, Hyderabad.
Reviewer for research papers/reviews in PLoS One and Frontiers in Genetics.
Resource person for trainings conducted at the ICAR – Indian Institute of Millets Research, ICAR – Indian Institute of Rice Research, ICAR – Indian Institute of Oilseeds Research, ICAR – National Academy of Agricultural Research Management, Hyderabad and Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore.
Evaluator of the Ph.D. thesis in Biotechnology from JNTU, Hyderabad; Genetics from Osmania University, Hyderabad and Molecular Biology and Biotechnology from Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University, Hyderabad.

DBT funded collaborative research project with Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad entitled “Development of sorghum genotypes suitable for lignocellulosic biofuel production through marker-assisted gene pyramiding of brown midrib genes”.

Jaikishan I, Rajendrakumar P, Hariprasanna K, Balakrishna D, Venkatesh Bhat B and Tonapi VA (2019) Identification of differentially expressed transcripts related to grain yield heterosis in sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench]. 3 Biotech 9(6): 239.
Jaikishan I, Rajendrakumar P, Hariprasanna K and Venkatesh Bhat B (2018) Gene expression analysis in sorghum hybrids and their parental lines at critical developmental stages in relation to grain yield heterosis by exploiting heterosis-related genes from major cereals. Plant Mol. Biol. Rep. 36(3): 418-428.
Rajendrakumar P, Hariprasanna K, Madhusudhana R, Umakanth AV, Elangovan M and Seetharama N (2017) Molecular characterization of parental lines of post-rainy sorghum using simple sequence repeat markers. J. BioSci. Biotech. 6(1): 49-57.
Jaikishan I, Rajendrakumar P, Madhusudhana R, Elangovan M and Patil JV (2015) Development and utility of PCR-based intron polymorphism markers in sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench]. J. Crop Sci. Biotech. 18(5): 309-318.
Jaikishan I, Paik GR, Madhusudhana R, Elangovan M and Rajendrakumar P (2013) Development of microsatellite markers targeting (GATA)n motifs in sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench]. Molecular Breeding 31: 223–231.

Madhusudhana R, Rajendrakumar P and Patil JV (2015) Sorghum Molecular Breeding. Springer (India) Pvt. Ltd., ISBN 978-81-322-2421-1, 226 p.

Rajendrakumar P, Ganapathy KN, Jinu Jacob and Amasiddha Bellundagi (2019) Genomics of climate resilience in millets. In: Climate Resilience in Millets [Talwar HS, Kannababu K, Venkatesh Bhat B and Vilas A Tonapi (Eds), ICAR – Indian Institute of Millets Research, Hyderabad, India, 179-212 pp.
Mehta BK, Shashikumara P, Vikas Mangal and Rajendrakumar P (2019) Breeding for multiple disease resistance in major food and oilseed crops. In: Challenges and Emerging Opportunities in Indian Agriculture [Srinivasa Rao Ch, Senthil V and Meena PC (Eds), ICAR – National Academy of Agricultural Research Management, Hyderabad, India, 21-50 pp.
Perumal R, Rajendrakumar P, Maulana F, Tesso T and Little CR (2017) Genetic changes in sorghum. In: Sorghum: State of the Art and Future Perspectives. (Ciampitti I and Prasad V (Eds), gronomy Monograph 58. ASA and CSSA, Madison, WI. ISBN: 978-0-89118-628-1, doi:10.2134/agronmonogr58.2014.0053.
Rajendrakumar P (2017) Molecular markers for the genetic improvement of millets. In: Millets and Sorghum: Biology and Genetic Improvement. (Patil JV (Ed.), John Wiley & Sons Ltd., ISBN: 978-1-119-12305-7, 341-394.