Plant Physiology & Pathology

Biography

Dr. Sachin Rustgi, born in 1980, is currently affiliated as Assistant Research Professor, and member of the Molecular Plant Sciences Graduation Program with the Washington State University at Pullman. He holds a master’s degree in Botany from the M.J.P. Rohilkhand University at Bareilly and a Ph.D. degree in Genetics and Plant Breeding from the C.C.S. University at Meerut. Immediately after graduation in 2006 he joined WSU and ever since working there in different capacities. His research is a balance between applied and basic with an emphasis on the targeted improvement of small grain cereals. His major research interests include, but are not limited to the development of i) dietary therapies for the ‘gluten syndrome’ by engineering nutritionally enhanced wheat genotypes with reduced amount of immunogenic gluten proteins and glycemically rich amylopectin; ii) genetically resistant wheat and barley genotypes to major rhizopathogens of the U.S. Pacific Northwest by biomimetic engineering of wheat lines to produce an antifungal antibiotic pyrrolnitrin, or a chitin degrading enzyme endochitinase; and iii) herbicide (imidazolinone) tolerant, industrially compatible and nutritionally enhanced barley cultivars by breeding for herbicide tolerance, reduced proanthocyanidin content and increased grain lysine content, respectively. For the basic research perspective, he is interested in deciphering: (a) genes and signaling pathways contributing to yield stability under stress environments; (b) molecular mechanism underlying the diploid-like pairing behaviors of polyploidy wheat; and (c) molecular and cytogenetic events that shaped wheat genome following allopolyploidization. Dr. Rustgi has published 53 research articles in well-recognized national and international journals with the impact factors ranging from 0.486 to 9.809. The timely publication of the research and review articles in the thrust areas of plant sciences resulted in a total of 1638 citations of his work and an h-index as well as i10-index of 15 and 16, respectively. Moreover, he presented posters in 39 national/international conferences, and authored two books entitle “In silico development and use of SSR and SNP markers in bread wheat: Gene derived markers and genome fractionation a glimpse in the wheat genome” and “Natural dietary therapies for the gluten syndrome”.

Research Interest

My research is a balance between applied and basic sciences with a focus on targeted improvement of cereals using tools of structural and functional genomics. The major research activities include development of natural dietary therapies for the ‘gluten syndrome’ by engineering wheat genotypes with reduced gluten content and expressing gluten-detoxifying enzymes, biomimetic engineering of wheat lines to produce an antifungal antibiotic pyrrolnitrin, systemic expression of an antimycotic enzyme endochitinase, and development of herbicide (imidazolinone) tolerant barley cultivars.