Recognizing Plant Physiology first authors: Kirtikumar R. Kondhare

Kirtikumar R. Kondhare, co-first author of PcG proteins MSI1 and BMI1 function upstream of miR156 to regulate aerial tuber formation in potato

Current position: DST – Inspire Faculty fellow, Biochemical Sciences Division, CSIR – National Chemical Laboratory (NCL), Pune, Maharashtra, India

Non-scientific Interests: Playing and watching cricket, listening to music, dancing

Brief bio: In 2012, I completed PhD from Harper Adams University in collaboration with Rothamsted Research (United Kingdom) under the guidance of Prof. Peter Kettlewell, Prof. Peter Hedden, Dr. Aidan Farrell and Dr. Jim Monaghan. During PhD, I investigated the role of abscisic acid (ABA) and gibberellins (GAs) during cold-shock induced pre-maturity α-amylase (PMA) formation in wheat grains. From 2013 to 2019, I was working as a post-doc with Prof. Anjan K. Banerjee at Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER Pune, India) in the field of Plant Molecular Biology. At IISER Pune, I was engaged in studying the molecular mechanism of photoperiod-mediated tuberization pathway in potato; especially the role of key transcription factors/proteins, mobile RNAs and miRNAs in potato development. Part of this work consolidated to this paper. Presently, I am working as a DST (Dept. of Science and Technology, Govt. of India) – Inspire Faculty fellow at Biochemical Sciences Division, CSIR – National Chemical Laboratory (NCL), Pune, India. My current research interest is to decipher the molecular mechanism of storage root development using sweet potato and other root crops as model systems.