BM

Balram Marathi

ORCID iD 0000-0003-1747-6438
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About

Prof. Balram Marathi is working as Associate Dean, Agricultural College, Warangal, Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University, Telangana State, India. He has 30 years of experience in the fields of research, teaching and extension. He completed his doctoral degree from Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India and Post-Doctoral research at International Rice Research Institute, Philippines. He received Jawaharlal Nehru award for outstanding research work in crop improvement by Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi, Assam Government Gold Medal for Best research work in rice from Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, International Fellowship for Post-Doctoral Research from International Rice Research Institute, Philippines and The State Best Teacher award from Government of Telangana, India. He is Fellow, Royal Society of Biology, London and Fellow, Indian Society of Genetics and Plant Breeding, New Delhi. He is an inventor in a US patent No. US10,999,986 B2 on “Increasing hybrid seed production through higher outcrossing rate in cytoplasmic male sterile rice and related materials and methods” which will revolutionize hybrid rice seed yields as outcrossing rate of rice is improved to 60-80%. The same patent being filed in eight other countries like Australia, Brazil, China, European Union, India, Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam. He has made outstanding efforts in improvement of aerobic rice lines through genome wide analysis and genomic selection where in efforts are underway to develop high yielding rice varieties grown under aerobic conditions with limited water resources by understanding genomic regions influencing yield and yield contributing traits and genomic selection approaches. He is also working on high-throughput phenotyping of plant characteristics under realistic field conditions which will help in understanding how different genotypes respond differently under field conditions which can be known through image processing. The research on high-throughput phenotyping resulted development of a methodology for discriminating filled and unfilled grains in rice through thermal imaging and publishing of a paper in high impact factor journal like Journal of Cereal Science and filing of a patent filed in India. He is instrumental in development of high oleic acid, late leaf spot, rust resistant K6 variety of ground nut through marker assisted gene pyramiding The research outcome resulted in publishing a paper in high impact factor journal i.e., Frontiers in Genetics. He has identified novel genomic loci influencing yield and blast resistance in rice which will be highly useful to the farming community of Telangana state to understand blast disease resistance status of the varieties they are growing and a paper has been published in a high impact factor journal i.e., BMC Plant Biology and Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution. He involved in teaching of graduate, post graduate and doctoral courses and guided 15 Masters, 7 Doctoral and 1 Post-Doctoral student in departments of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Genetics and Plant Breeding. He published 41 research articles in various national and international journals, contributed to 6 book chapters, edited 1 book and presented 31 research papers at various national and international conferences. He has involved in breeding improved varieties/lines/hybrids for grain yield with biotic and abiotic stress resistance/tolerance in rice and cotton viz., development of a medium staple cotton hybrid LAHH-4, and four rice varieties viz. Sheetal (WGL283) a cold tolerant rice variety, Siddhi (WGL44), Somnath (WGL347) and Telangana Vari-1 (WGL739) medium and short duration rice varieties possessing gall midge resistance which has covered significant area across States in India. He has completed characterization of wild species / landraces and identification of donors for outcrossing floral traits, bacterial leaf blight, blast in rice and pearl millet. He has expertise in QTL mapping, fine mapping, validation of QTLs for yield, quality, floral traits, BPH, sheath blight in rice. He is Guest Editor in Frontiers in Genetics; Plants (MDPI) Journal; Review Editor in Frontiers in Plant Science; Editorial committee member in Journal of Research PJTSAU and Rice Open Access Journal. He is member of Academic Council and Faculty Board, PJTSAU. He is Member, Crop Science Society of America and Life Member, Indian Society of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Society for Plant Biochemistry and Biotechnology, Indian Society of Plant Breeders. He is reviewer for journals like Frontiers in Plant Science, Crop Science, Plos One, Molecular Breeding, Breeding Science, The Plant genome, Journal of Plant Biochemistry and Biotechnology, Indian Journal of Genetics and Plant Breeding, SABRAO Journal of Breeding and Genetics etc.

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Publications (21)