Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology was established at S.V. Agricultural College, Tirupati in the year 2015.

Teaching

This Dept. offers both M.Sc (Ag) and Ph.D. programmes. As of now, 4 Ph.D. and 12 M.Sc (Ag) students were awarded their degrees. This Department offers 8 courses at M.Sc (Ag) level and 4 courses at Ph.D. level as per the ICAR guidelines.

The list of the major courses offered in the Dept. is given below:

Research

In addition to teaching, this Dept. also conducts research. The major areas of research include understanding the molecular biology of various abiotic stresses, quality and yield-related traits, and molecular mapping of genomic regions/QTLs governing key traits in rice, groundnut, maize, and pulse crops. Besides, we also undertake application-oriented research such as the development of cultivar-specific DNA fingerprints, marker-assisted improvement of elite cultivars, and provide bioinformatics solutions for crop improvement.

Training

We also conduct workshops related to cutting-edge technologies in plant genomics and bioinformatics. As of now, two hands-on workshops iz., “Molecular data analysis through Bioinformatics tools” have been organized from 01-11-2021 to 10-11-2021 and “Harnessing Genomic tools for Crop improvement” from 23.01.2023 to 04.02.2023. We also organized several webinars and guest lectures with India’s renowned scientists.

A Guest lecture on “Genomics-assisted breeding in groundnut” by Prof. Ramesh S. Bhat, Professor, University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad has been arranged on 11-04-2023 at 2 pm by DEPT. OF MOLECULAR BIOLOGY AND BIOTECHNOLOGY