Sushil Kumar (14 December 1940 2 May 2021) was an Indian geneticist and academic, known for his Plant and microbial genetical

genomics Genomics is an interdisciplinary field of molecular biology focusing on the structure, function, evolution, mapping, and editing of genomes. A genome is an organism's complete set of DNA, including all of its genes as well as its hierarchical, ...

, especially the studies on

Escherichia coli ''Escherichia coli'' ( )Wells, J. C. (2000) Longman Pronunciation Dictionary. Harlow ngland Pearson Education Ltd. is a gram-negative, facultative anaerobic, rod-shaped, coliform bacterium of the genus '' Escherichia'' that is commonly fo ...

and

Lambda phage Lambda phage (coliphage λ, scientific name ''Lambdavirus lambda'') is a bacterial virus, or bacteriophage, that infects the bacterial species ''Escherichia coli'' (''E. coli''). It was discovered by Esther Lederberg in 1950. The wild type of ...

as well as on the mutants of

Rhizobium ''Rhizobium'' is a genus of Gram-negative soil bacteria that fix nitrogen. ''Rhizobium'' species form an endosymbiotic nitrogen-fixing association with roots of (primarily) legumes and other flowering plants. The bacteria colonize plant ce ...

. He was a former director of the Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants of the

Council of Scientific and Industrial Research The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR; IAST: ''vaigyanik tathā audyogik anusandhāna pariṣada'') is a research and development (R&D) organisation in India to promote scientific, industrial and economic growth. Headquarter ...

and an elected fellow of the

Indian National Science Academy The Indian National Science Academy (INSA) is a national academy in New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three b ...

, National Academy of Agricultural Sciences,

National Academy of Sciences, India The National Academy of Sciences, India, also known as NASI, was established in 1930 and is the oldest science academy of India. It is located in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh. Prof. Meghnad Saha was the founder president. Fellows * Suddhasatwa Bas ...

, and

Indian Academy of Sciences The Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore was founded by Indian Physicist and List of Nobel laureates, Nobel Laureate Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman, C. V. Raman, and was registered as a society on 27 April 1934. Inaugurated on 31 July 1934, it ...

. The

, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards, in 1981, for his contributions to biological sciences.

Biography

Sushil Kumar, born on 14 December 1940 in the Indian capital of Delhi, did his schooling at Municipal Primary School and Dayanand Anglo-Vedic Public School, both Delhi-based schools, and graduated in science from Hansraj College, Delhi in 1960. He joined the

Indian Agricultural Research Institute The Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), commonly known as the Pusa Institute, is India's national institute for agricultural research, education and extension. The name Pusa Institute is derived from the fact that the institute was ...

(IARI) for his post graduate studies from where he obtained his master's degree (MSc) in 1962 under the guidance of S. Ramanujam and continued his research there, mentored by A. T. Natarajan, to secure a doctoral degree (PhD) in 1965. He did his post-doctoral research under

M. S. Swaminathan Mankombu Sambasivan Swaminathan (7 August 1925 – 28 September 2023) was an Indian geneticist and plant breeder, administrator and humanitarian. Swaminathan was a global leader of the green revolution. He has been called the main architect of ...

, the pioneer of Indian Green Revolution, during 1965–66 and continued his research in the US at

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) is a private, non-profit institution with research programs focusing on cancer, neuroscience, botany, genomics, and quantitative biology. It is located in Laurel Hollow, New York, in Nassau County, on ...

with Paul Margolin from 1966 to 1968, at

University of Wisconsin-Madison A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...

with

Wacław Szybalski Wacław Szybalski (Polish pronunciation: ; 9 September 1921 – 16 December 2020) was a Polish-American medical researcher, geneticist and professor of oncology at the McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research, University of Wisconsin–Madison Me ...

from 1968 to 1970 and at

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...

with C. R. Fuerst from 1970 to 1971. Returning to India in 1971, Kumar joined the Indian Agricultural Research Institute as a geneticist and senior scientist where he served till 1989, serving as the professor of

Molecular biology Molecular biology is a branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecule, molecular basis of biological activity in and between Cell (biology), cells, including biomolecule, biomolecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interactio ...

and

Agricultural biotechnology Agricultural biotechnology, also known as agritech, is an area of agricultural science involving the use of scientific tools and techniques, including genetic engineering, molecular markers, molecular diagnostics, vaccines, and tissue culture, to ...

from 1985 onward. Moving to the

(CSIR) as a senior grade scientist in 1989, he became the director of the Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants in 1993, superannuating in that position in 2000. During his tenure at CSIR, he also held the directorship of two subsidiaries, the ''Human Resource Development Group'' in 1997 and the National Botanical Research Institute during 1998–99. Post his official retirement, he continued his association with CSIR as an emeritus scientist from 2001 to 2005 when he moved to the National Institute for Plant Genome Research, an autonomous institute under the

Department of Biotechnology The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) is an Indian government department, under the Ministry of Science and Technology responsible for administrating development and commercialisation in the field of modern biology and biotechnology in India. ...

as an INSA Senior Scientist in 2006, holding the position till 2010. He has been associated with the SKA Institution for Research, Education and Development since 2012 where he continues his researches.

Legacy

The researches of Sushil Kumar which focused on the fields of plant and microbial genetical

are reported to have assisted in a wider understanding of biotechnology and crop breeding. His early researches helped in the discovery of ''structural arrangement of chromosomes in the interphase nucleus'' and later, working on

and its

bacteriophage Lambda Lambda phage (coliphage λ, scientific name ''Lambdavirus lambda'') is a bacterial virus, or bacteriophage, that infects the bacterial species ''Escherichia coli'' (''E. coli''). It was discovered by Esther Lederberg in 1950. The wild type of ...

, he described its transcription map. He elucidated the

pleiotropic Pleiotropy () is a condition in which a single gene or genetic variant influences multiple phenotypic traits. A gene that has such multiple effects is referred to as a ''pleiotropic gene''. Mutations in pleiotropic genes can impact several trait ...

functions of

cyclic AMP Cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP, cyclic AMP, or 3',5'-cyclic adenosine monophosphate) is a second messenger, or cellular signal occurring within cells, that is important in many biological processes. cAMP is a derivative of adenosine triph ...

in Escherichia coli and elaborated on the antitermination and antiparallel transcription and transcription termination sites of Lambda phage. He is known to have discovered new genes in

, a

nitrogen-fixing Nitrogen fixation is a chemical process by which molecular dinitrogen () is converted into ammonia (). It occurs both biologically and abiological nitrogen fixation, abiologically in chemical industry, chemical industries. Biological nitrogen ...

soil bacteria and developed its mutants which has higher nitrogen fixing capabilities, thus contributing to augmenting the cultivation of crops such as

Pisum sativum Pea (''pisum'' in Latin) is a pulse or fodder crop, but the word often refers to the seed or sometimes the pod of this flowering plant species. Peas are eaten as a vegetable. Carl Linnaeus gave the species the scientific name ''Pisum sativum ...

(Pea),

Catharanthus roseus ''Catharanthus roseus'', commonly known as bright eyes, Cape periwinkle, graveyard plant, Madagascar periwinkle, old maid, pink periwinkle, rose periwinkle, is a perennial species of flowering plant in the family Apocynaceae. It is native and en ...

(Madagascar periwinkle) and

Triticum aestivum Common wheat (''Triticum aestivum''), also known as bread wheat, is a cultivated wheat species. About 95% of wheat produced worldwide is common wheat; it is the most widely grown of all crops and the cereal with the highest monetary yield. Ta ...

(Wheat). His work also helped in the genetic improvement which yielded higher levels of

artemisinin Artemisinin () and its semisynthetic derivatives are a group of drugs used in the treatment of malaria due to ''Plasmodium falciparum''. It was discovered in 1972 by Tu Youyou, who shared the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for he ...

Artemisia annua ''Artemisia annua'', also known as sweet wormwood, sweet annie, sweet sagewort, annual mugwort or annual wormwood, is a common type of wormwood native to temperate Asia, but naturalized in many countries including scattered parts of North Ameri ...

(Sweet wormwood) and essential oil in

Mentha arvensis ''Mentha arvensis'', the corn mint, field mint, or wild mint, is a species of flowering plant in the mint family Lamiaceae. It has a circumboreal distribution, being native to the temperate regions of Europe and western and central Asia, east to ...

(Wild mint). His researches have been documented by way of over 300 articles and 25 books and he has received 80 international and 52 Indian patents for his work. In 1971, Kumar founded the molecular genetics laboratory of the Indian Agricultural Research Institute and later, contributed to the introduction of an academic course in

molecular genetics Molecular genetics is a branch of biology that addresses how differences in the structures or expression of DNA molecules manifests as variation among organisms. Molecular genetics often applies an "investigative approach" to determine the st ...

at the institute. During his tenure at the Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, he established a regional field station of the institute at

Uttaranchal Uttarakhand (, ), also known as Uttaranchal ( ; the official name until 2007), is a state in northern India. The state is bordered by Himachal Pradesh to the northwest, Tibet to the north, Nepal to the east, Uttar Pradesh to the south and sout ...

and founded a central Genetic Resources and Biotechnology Laboratory. A former president of the Indian Society of Genetics and Plant Breeding (1994–97), he started the ''Journal of Medicinal and Aromatic Plant Sciences'' during his tenure as the president. He was associated with several other science journals such as

Journal of Genetics The ''Journal of Genetics'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal in the field of genetics and evolution. It was established in 1910 by the British geneticists William Bateson and Reginald Punnett and is one of the oldest genetics journals. It ...

, ''Indian Journal of Genetics and Plant Breeding'', ''Indian Journal of Experimental Biology'' and ''Proceedings of Indian National Science Academy'' and mentored 32 doctoral scholars in their researches.

Awards and honors

Sushil Kumar received the Gold Medal from the Indian Agricultural Research Institute in 1962 and the Genetics Medal of the Indian Society of Genetics and Plant Breeding in 1965. The

awarded him the

Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize Shanti or Shanthi may refer to: In Sanskrit * Inner peace, a state of being mentally and spiritually at peace, with enough knowledge and understanding to keep oneself strong in the face of discord or stress * Kshanti, one of the paramitas of B ...

, one of the highest Indian science awards, in 1981. The

awarded him the Distinguished Scientist Award in 1986 and he received two awards in 2000, the FICCI Science Award of the

Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry A federation (also called a federal state) is an entity characterized by a political union, union of partially federated state, self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a #Federal governments, federal government (federalism) ...

and the Om Prakash Bhasin Award. The Shyam Bahadur Saksena Memorial Medal of INSA reached him in 2002 and in 2003, he delivered the Dr. B. P. Pal Memorial Lecture of the National Academy of Sciences, India. The

elected him as their fellow in 1981 and the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences followed suit in 1992. A year later, he was elected as a fellow by the National Academy of Sciences, India and he became an elected fellow of the Indian National Science Academy in 1995.

Notes

References

External links

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