Dr RupinderKaur graduated with B.Sc. (Hons.) Agriculture in 1998 from Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana followed by a Masters Degree, M.Sc. (Plant Breeding) in 2000 and completed Ph. D. in Plant Breeding in 2007.  She commenced her professional journey as Assistant Rice Breeder in 2004 at Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana. She has more than twenty years of active involvement in breeding high yielding rice varieties with multiple resistance to various biotic and abiotic stresses and improved grain quality.  She is involved in the development of ten new high yielding non basmati rice varieties PR121, PR122, PR 123, PR 124, PR 127, PR 128, PR 129, PR 130, PR 131 and PR 132and four Basmati rice varieties Punjab Basmati 3, Punjab Basmati 4, Punjab Basmati 5 and Punjab Basmati 7. She has successfully accomplished seven national/international projects and is handling sixongoing projects as PI/ Co-PI. Her scholarly contributions extend to 40 research papers in reputable journals, one teaching manual and many extension articles. She has guided nine M.Sc and two Ph.D. students as major advisor. She is actively involved in undergraduate and post graduate teaching.

Professional Accomplishments

Research Projects (Ongoing)

1. Consortia for Research Platform on Hybrid Technology for high productivity in selected field and horticultural crops- Rice funded by ICAR, New Delhi (as PI)
2. Incentivizing Research in Agriculture: Molecular genetic analysis of resistance/ tolerance to different stresses in rice. Project sub- title: Identification and mapping of sheath blight and false smut resistance QTL in rice and their utilization in developing resistant cultivars funded by ICAR, New Delhi (as Co-PI)
3. Dry Direct Seeded Rice for the Indo-Gangetic Plains of India (Plant Direct) funded by Bill & Melinda Gates (as Co-PI)
4. Targeted breedingfor disaster risk mitigation in wheat (drought and pre-harvest sprouting) and rice (submergence and drought) funded by State Disaster Risk Management Authority, Govt. of Punjab (Co-PI)
5. Tackling emerging diseases and insectpests problem in rice through innovative genomic approaches funded by DBT, New Delhi (as Co-PI)
6. New insight in understanding genomic footprints of nutrient uptake under direct seeded rice cultivation system funded by DBT, New Delhi (as Co-PI)

Research Projects (completed)

1. Addressing food security through Nutritionally enriched improved cutivars and technologies for Swasth Bharat under PURSE programme funded by DST, New Delhi (as PI)
2. One IRRI–NARES breeding network (Accelerated genetic gains in rice alliance) funded by Bill & Melinda Gates (as Co-PI)
3. Genetic enhancement of Basmati rice genotypes for disease resistance and threshability through induced mutagenesis funded by BARC, Mumbai (as Co-PI)
4. CSISA (Cereal System Initiative for South Asia) funded by BMGF-USAID- (as Co-PI)
5. Marker assisted introgression of different traits to develop new generation rice varieties funded by DBT, New Delhi (as Co-PI)
6. From QTLs/genes to direct seeded rice varietal development to meet future challenges funded by DBT, New Delhi (as Co-PI)
7. Identification and mapping of sheat blight and false smut resistance QTLs in rice and their utilization in developing resistant cultivars funded by DBT, New Delhi (as Co-PI)

Research Publications:

1. Gosangi A, Sharma N, Kalluri RP, Kaur R, Singh G, Pagidipala N and Thulasinathan T. 2024. Unveiling the distribution of free and bound phenolic acids, flavonoids, anthocyanins, and proanthocyanidins in pigmented and non-pigmented rice genotypes. Frontiers in Plant Science 15: 1324825 doi: 10.3389/fpls.2024.1324825.(NAAS rating: 11.60)
2. Singh Gurjeet, Khanna R, RajvirKaur, KirandeepKaur, RupinderKaur, Neerja Sharma, Gurjit Singh Mangat. 2023.Performance under multi-environment trial for quantitative traits of rice (Oryzasativa) genotypes in North-West India (Punjab), Ecological Genetics and Genomics, Volume 28: 100190 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egg.2023.100190(Impact factor: 0.719)
3. Sumuni SM, Kaur R, KaurRajvir, Khanna R, Kaur K, Lore J S, Singh G, Chahal R K and Mangat G S. 2023. Multivariate analysis for morpho-physiological and milling traits along with molecular profiling of known bacterial blight resistance genes in advanced breeding lines of rice. Cereal Research Communicationshttps://doi.org/10.1007/s42976-023-00412-3(NAAS rating: 7.24)
4. KaurRajvir, Kaur R, Sharma N, Kumari N, Khanna R and   Singh G.   Protein profiling in a set of wild rice species and rice cultivars: a stepping stone to protein quality improvement Cereal Res Commun.DOI: 10.1007/s42976-022-00273-2(NAAS rating: 6.85)
5. Kaur R, Kaur R, Sharma N, Singh G, Khanna R, Neelam K. 2022. A preliminary investigation of cultivated and wild species of rice for tocopherol contents. Journal of Rice Research15:  https://doi.org/10.58297/ZUNM1448(NAAS rating: 4.05)
6. Singh H, Singh J, Ade PA, Raigar OP, Kaur R, Khanna R, Mangat GS, Sandhu N. 2022.Genetic evaluation of a diverse rice panel for direct seeded adapted traits using kompetitive allele specific primer assay. Agronomy: 12: 2083. https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy12092083(NAAS rating: 42)
7. Singh G, Kaur N, Khanna R, Kaur R, Gudi S, Kaur R, Sidhu N, Vikal Y, Mangat GS. 2022. 2Gs and plant architecture: breaking grain yield ceiling through breeding approaches for next wave of revolution in rice (Oryzasativa). Crit Rev Biotechnol. 29:1-24. doi: 10.1080/07388551.2022.2112648 (NAAS rating: 14.43)
8. Aggarwal SK, Malik P, Neelam K, Kumar K, Kaur R, Lore JS and Singh Kuldeep. 2022. Genome‑wide association mapping for identification of sheath blight resistance loci from wild rice Euphyticahttps://doi.org/10.1007/s10681-022-03091-z. (NAAS rating: 7.90)
9. Sandhu N, Singh J , Singh G , Sethi M , MohiniPrabha Singh M P , Pruthi G , Om PrakashRaigar Om P, KaurRupinder ,  Kaur R , Sarao PS , Lore JS , Maheshwar Singh Uma M , Dixit S, SagareDeepti B , Singh  SP , Satturu V , Vikas K S , Kumar Arvind.2022. Development and validation of a novel core set of KASP markers for the traits improving grain yield and adaptability of rice under direct-seeded cultivation conditions.  Genomics 114 (2)https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ygeno.2022.110269(NAAS rating 11.74)
10. GaikwadKiran, Singh Naveen, Bhatia Dharminder, KaurRupinder, BainsNavtej, BharajTajinder and Singh Kuldeep (2019) Reinventing heterosis phenomenon through deployment of alien introgression lines in rice (Oryzasativa). Pl Breed 138(3) pp 277-89 (NAAS: 7.39)

Awards and Recognitions:

• Rice Research Team got the Overall second Best AICRPR Center Award by ICAR during the year 2023-24 at the 59^th ARGM Workshop Group Meeting held on April 24-26, 2024 at NAASC, New Delhi
• Best AICRIP Breeding Centre Award-2016 (Plaque and Certificate) at 52^nd Annual Rice Research Group Meeting held at AAU, Jorhat
• Golden Jubilee AICRIP Team award -2015 (Plaque and Certificate-team award) from Indian Institute of Rice Research, Hyderabad
• Commendation certificate for outstanding performance in Winter School on “New Frontiers in Hybrid Rice Technology” conducted in 2006 by Directorate of Rice Research, Hyderabad
• Gold Medal in B.Sc. Agriculture (Hons.) in Crop Science, 1998, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana