Dr.Virinder Singh Sohu, earned his professional degrees from PAU with distinctions having been awarded Merit Certificate in B.Sc. Ag. (Hons.) (1985), S. Iqbal Singh Gold Medal for highest OGPA in M.Sc. Plant Breeding (1987) and ICAR Senior Research Fellowship during Ph.D. Plant Breeding (1992) with OGPA 4.00/4.00. He joined PAU, Ludhiana as Assistant Extension Specialist (Cotton) (1992-1992), Assistant Wheat Breeder (1992-2001), Wheat Breeder (2001-2009), Senior Plant Breeder & redesignated as Principal Wheat Breeder (2009-till date).He has developed/released 28 PAU wheat varieties of which 20 were released at national level. He has 339 publications to his credit. He has taught plant breeding courses to undergraduate and postgraduate students and guided 10 M.Sc. and 6 Ph.D. students.

He got adhoc research projects with more than Rs. 10 crore funding from various agencies and handled 27 adhoc research projects (9 as PI and 18 as Co-PI) relating to biofortification, heat & drought tolerance, rust resistance, etc. He has extensive international exposure and visited international agricultural research CG centres like CIMMYT, Mexico, IRRI, Philippines, ICARDA, Morocco, ICRISAT, India besides other institutions of international repute namely University of Minnesota, USA; University of Sydney, Australia; Wageningen University, Netherlands; Sabanci University, Turkey; Russia, China, and several other countries.

Professional accomplishments

During his research career in wheat breeding spanning more than 33 years in the Department of Plant Breeding & Genetics at PAU, he made significant contributions as team member towards release of 37 wheat varieties – 28 PAU wheat varieties (22 developed + 6 evaluated), of which 20 were released at national level, and 9 from other institutes. Notable ones are PBW 343, PBW 373, PBW 502, PBW 550, PBW 725, Unnat PBW 343, PBW 1 Zn and PBW 826. Averaged over the last 25 years, the wheat varieties developed by him occupied more than 50 per cent of wheat area in Punjab annually. These varieties were also very popular at national level as evident from their continued inclusion in list of top 10 varieties in national breeder seed production program out of more than 300 varieties in seed chain.

Selected Research publications

He has 339 publications to his credit, including 105 peer reviewed original research papers (43 with >6 and 10 with ≥10 NAAS rating) having 3314 google citations, h-index 23,  i10-index 40 and ResearchGate score 36.33. He served as Editor-in-Chiefof the ‘Crop Improvement’ research journal (June 2013 to June 2015), Crop Improvement Society of India, Ludhiana ;Associate Editor of Agricultural Research Journal, PAU, Ludhiana; and Member Editorial Board of Progressive Farming/Changi Kheti, PAU, Ludhiana.

Anley A M, Srivastava P, Kaur H, Sharma A, Chhuneja P, Bains N S, Sohu V S, Bala R, Singh S K and Mavi G S. 2025. Assessment of Gpc-B1/Yr36introgressions in a popular Indian wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivar PBW550 for grain yield and quality traits. Indian J Genet 85(1): 43–49. https://doi.org/10.31742/ISGPB.85.1.5(NAAS rating 7.00)

Gudi S, Jain M, Singh S, Kaur S, Srivastava P, Mavi G S, Chhuneja P, Sohu V S, Safhi F A, El-Moneim D A and Sharma A. 2024. Stress adaptive plasticity from Aegilops tauschiiintrogression lines improves drought and heat stress tolerance in bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) PeerJ 12:e17528 https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.17528(NAAS rating 8.70)

Sharma H, Singh S, Shamshad M, Padhy AK, Kaur R, Kashyap L, Srivastava P, Mavi GS, Kaur S, Sharma A, Sohu VS and Bains NS 2023. Variability in iron, zinc, phytic acid and protein content in pre-breeding wheat germplasm under different water regimes. Plant Growth Regulation 100:531-543. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10725-022-00943-5 (NAAS rating 9.24)

Tanin MJ, Sharma A, Ram H, Singh S, Srivastava P, Mavi GS, Saini DK, Gudi S, Kumar P, Goyal P and Sohu VS 2023. Application of potassium nitrate and salicylic acid improves grain yield and related traits by delaying leaf senescence in Gpc-B1 carrying advanced wheat genotypes. Front Plant Sci14:1107705 (NAAS rating 12.63)

Khan H, Krishnappa G, Kumar S, Mishra CN, Parkash O, Rathore A, Das RR, Yadav R, Krishna H, Bishnoi OP, Sohu VS, Sendhil R, Yadav SS, Singh G and Singh GP 2022. Genetic gains in grain yield in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivars developed from 1965 to 2020 for irrigated production conditions of northwestern plains zone of India. Cereal Research Communications, 51: 437-446. ISSN 1788-9170 (NAAS aring 6.85)

Gupta PK, Balyan HS, Chhuneja P, Jaiswal JP, Tamhankar S, Mishra V K, Bains N S, Chand R, Joshi A K, Kaur S, Kaur H, Mavi G S, Oak M, Sharma A, Srivastava P, Sohu V S, P, Agarwal P, Akhtar M, Badoni S, Chaudhary R, GahlautV, Gangwar R P, Gautam T, Jaiswal V, Kumar RS, Kumar S, Shamshad M, Singh A, Taygi S, Vasistha N K and Vishwakarma M K. 2022. Pyramiding of genes for grain protein content, grain quality, and rust resistance in eleven Indian bread wheat cultivars: a multi-institutional effort. Mol Breeding 42, 21 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11032-022-01277-w (NAAS rating 8. 59)

Kaur K, Sharma A, Mavi G S, Srivastava P, Kaur H, Sharma H, Singh S, Kushwah A and Sohu V S. 2022. Biofortified wheat: Harnessing genetic diversity for improved nutritional quality to eradicate hidden hunger. Crop Science: 62: 802-819. DOI: 10.1002/csc2.20701 (NAAS rating 8. 32)

Padhy AK, Sharma A, Sharma H, Rajput R, Pandey A, Srivastava P, Kaur S, Kaur H, Singh S, Kashyap L, Mavi GS, Kaur J, Sohu VS, Chhuneja P and Bains NS 2022. Bread wheat with enhanced grain carotenoid content: a novel option for wheat biofortification. Mol Breeding42:67. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11032-022-01338-0 (NAAS rating 9.30)

Tanin MJ, Sharma A, Saini D, Singh S, Kashyap L, Srivastava P, Mavi GS, Kaur S, Kumar V, Kumar V, Grover G, Chhuneja P and Sohu VS 2022. Yield and grain protein content stability in wheat genotypes having Gpc-B1 gene using univariate, multivariate and correlation analysis. Front Genetdoi: 10.3389/fgene.2022.100190410.60(NAAS rating 10.77)

Tanin MJ, Sharma A, Saini DK, Singh S, Kashyap L, Srivastava P, Mavi GS, Kaur S, Kumar V, Kumar V, Grover G, Chhuneja P and Sohu VS 2022. Ascertaining yield and grain protein content stability in wheat genotypes having the Gpc-B1 gene using univariate, multivariate, and correlation analysis. Front Genet 13:1001904. doi: 10.3389/fgene.2022. 1001904 (NAAS rating 10.77)

Kumar U, Singh RP, Dreisigacker S, Röder NS, Crossa J, Huerta-Espino J, Mondal S, Crespo-Herrera L, Singh GP, Mishra CN, Mavi GS, Sohu VS, Sai Prasad SV, Naik R, Misra SC and Joshi AK (2021) Juvenile heat tolerance in wheat for attaining higher grain yield by shifting to early sowing in October in South Asia. Genes12 : 1808 (NAAS rating 10.10)

Sharma A, Srivastava P, Mavi G S, Kaur S, Kaur J, Bala R, Singh T P, Sohu V S, Chhuneja P, Bains N S and Singh G P (2021) Resurrection of wheat cultivar PBW343 using marker-assisted gene pyramiding for rust resistance. Front Plant Sci 12:570408. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2021.570408 (NAAS rating 11.75)

Sukhwinder Singh, Jighly A, Sehgal D, Burgueño J, Joukhadar R, Singh S K, Sharma A, Vikram P, Sansaloni C P, Govindan V, Bhavani S, Randhawa M, Solis Moya E, Singh S, Pardo N, Arif M A R, Aghari K A, Basandrai D, Shokat S, Chaudhary H K, Saeed N A, Basandrai A K, Ledesma-Ramírez L, Sohu V S, Imtiaz M, Ali S M, Wenzl P, Singh G P and Bains N S. 2021. Direct introgression of untapped diversity into elite wheat lines. Nat Food .https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-021-00380-z(NAAS Rating NA, 6+IF = 6+20.43=20^)

Prom-u-thai C, Rashid A, Ram H, Zou C, Guilherme L R G, Corguinha A P B, Guo S, Kaur C, Naeem A, Yamuangmorn S, Ashraf M Y, Sohu V S, Zhang Y, Martins F A D, Jumrus S, Tutus Y, Yazici M A and Cakmak I (2020) Simultaneous biofortification of rice with zinc, iodine, iron and selenium through foliar treatment of a micronutrient cocktail in five countries. Front Plant Sci11:589835. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2020.589835 (NAAS rating 10.40)

Blummel M, Upadhyay S R, Gautam N, Barma N C D, Hakim M A, Hussain M, Mujahid M Y, Chatrath R, Sohu V S, Mavi G, Mishra V K, Kalappanavar I K, Naik R, Biradar S, Prasad S V S, Singh R P and Joshi A K 2019.  Comparative assessment of food-fodder traits in a wide range of wheat germplasm for diverse biophysical target domains in South Asia. Field Crops Res236 : 68-74. (NAAS rating 9.13)

Kaur K, Sohu V S, Sharma A, Srivastava P, Mavi G S, Kaur H, Chhuneja P and Bains N S 2019. Biofortification strategies to increase wheat nutrition and sustaining yield simultaneously. Indian J Genet79 (1) : 15-24 (NAAS rating 6.41)

Randhawa M S, Bains N S, Sohu V S, Chhuneja P, Trethowan R M, Bariana H S and Bansal U 2019. Marker assisted transfer of stripe rust and stem rust resistance genes into four wheat cultivars. Agronomy9 (9), 497; doi:10.3390/agronomy9090497 (NAAS rating 7.42)

Singh C, Srivastava P, Sharma A, Kaur H, Sohu V S and Bains N S 2019. Gpc-B1 mediated grain protein enhancement in wheat is compatible with high grain weight at moderated yield thresholds. Indian J Genet79 (2) : 494-498 (NAAS rating 6.41)

Singh Sukhwinder, Vikram P, Sehgal D, Burgueño J, Sharma A, Singh S K, Sansaloni C P, Joynson R, Brabbs T, Ortiz C, Solis-Moya E, Govindan V, Gupta N, Sidhu H S, Basandrai A K, Basandrai D, Ledesma-Ramires L, Suaste-Franco M P, Fuentes-Dávila G, Moreno J I, Sonder K, Singh V K, Singh S, Shokat S, Arif Mian A R, Laghari Khalil A, Srivastava P, Bhavani S, Kumar S, Pal D, Jaiswal J P, Kumar U, Chaudhary H K, Crossa J, Payne T S, Imtiaz M, Sohu V S, Singh G P, Bains N S, Hall A and Pixley K V (2018) Harnessing genetic potential of wheat germplasm banks through impact-oriented-prebreeding for future food and nutritional security. Scientific ReportsNature8 : 1-11 [12527], DOI:10.1038/s41598-018-30667-4 (NAAS Rating 11.58)

Trethowan R, Chatrath C, Tiwari R, Kumar S, Saharan M S, Bains N S, Sohu V S, Srivastava P, Sharma A, De N, Prakash S, Singh G P, Sharma I, Eagles H, Diffey S, Bansal U and Bariana H 2018. An analysis of wheat yield and adaptation in India. Field Crops Res219 : 192-213. (NAAS rating 9.05)

Velu G, Singh R P, Crespo-Herrera L, Juliana P, Dreisigacker S, Valluru R, Stangoulis J, Sohu V S, Mavi G S, Mishra V K, Balasubramaniam A, Chatrath R, Gupta V, Singh G P and Joshi A K 2018. Genetic dissection of grain zinc concentration in spring wheat for mainstreaming biofortification in CIMMYT wheat breeding. Scientific Reports8 : 1-10 [13526] DOI:10.1038/s41598-018-31951-z (NAAS Rating 11.58)

Kumar Satish, Sohu V S, Singh R P, Gupta S K, Srivastava P and Bains N S 2018. Investigating the role of high molecular weight glutenin subunits (HMW-GS) protein in end use quality of Indian flat breads. Indian Journal of Biotechnology17 (1): 65-73 (NAAS Rating 6.29)

Reynolds MP, Pask AJD, Hoppitt WJE, Sonder K, Sukumaran S, Molero G, Pierre CS, Payne T, Singh RP, Braun HJ, Gonzalez FG, Terrile II, Barma NCD, Hakim A, He Z, Fan Z, Novoselovic D, Maghraby M, Gad KIM, Galal EHG, Hagras A, Mohamed MM, Morad AFA, Kumar U, Singh GP, Naik R, Kalappanavar IK, Biradar S, Sai Prasad S V, Chatrath R, Sharma I, Panchabhai K, Sohu VS, Mavi GS, et al. 2017. Strategic crossing of biomass and harvest index – source and sink – achieves genetic gains in wheat. Euphytica213 (11) : 257 (NAAS Rating 7.39)

Ram H, Rashid A, Zhang W, Duarte A P, Phattarakul N, Simunji S, Kalayci M, Freitas R, Rerkasem B, Bal R S, Mahmood K, Savasli E, Lungu O, Wang Z H, de Barros V L N P, Malik S S, Arisoy R Z, Guo J X, Sohu V S, Zou C Q and Cakmak I 2016. Biofortification of wheat, rice and common bean by applying foliar zinc fertilizer along with pesticides in seven countries. Plant Soil403 (1-2) : 389-401. DOI 10.1007/ s11104-016-2815-3. (NAAS rating 8.95)

Virdi R, Mavi G S, Bala R, Sohu V S, Bains N S, Kaur D J and Sharma I 2016. Genetic characterization of resistance to stripe rust, leaf rust, Karnal bunt and cereal cyst nematode in a multiple disease resistant wheat stock W8627. Indian J Genet76 (1) : 40-46. (NAAS rating 6.19)

Velu G, Crossa J, Singh R P, Hao Y, Dreisigacker S, Perez-Rodriguez P, Joshi AK, Chatrath R, Gupta V, Balasubramaniam A, Tiwari C, Mishra V K, Sohu V S and Mavi G S 2016. Genomic prediction for grain zinc and iron concentrations in spring wheat. Theor Appl Genet129 (8) : 1595-1605.    doi 10.1007/s00122-016-2726-y (NAAS rating 9.79)

Pask Alistair, Joshi A K, Manès Y, Sharma I, Chatrath R, Singh G P, Sohu V S, Mavi G S, Sakuru V S P, Kalappanavar I K, Mishra V K, Arun B, Mujahid M Y, Hussain M, Gautam N R, Barma N C D, Hakim A, Hoppitt W, Trethowan R, Reynolds M P. 2014 A wheat phenotyping network to incorporate physiological traits for climate change in South Asia.Field Crops Res168 : 156–167. (NAAS rating 8.47)

Lobell D B, Ortiz-Monasterio J I, Sibley A M, Sohu V S 2013. Satellite detection of earlier wheat sowing in India and implications for yield trends. Agricultural Systems115: 137–143 (NAAS rating 8.50)

Mondal S, Singh R P, Crossa J, Huerta-Espino J, Sharma I, Chatrath R, Singh G P, Sohu V S, Mavi G S, Sukaru V S P, Kalappanavar I K, Mishra V K, Hussain M, Gautam N R, Uddin J, Barma N C D, Hakim A, Joshi A K 2013. Earliness in wheat: A key to adaptation under terminal and continual high temperature stress in South Asia. Field Crops Res151: 19–26 (NAAS rating 8.47)

Ram H, Singh G, Mavi G S and Sohu V S 2012. Accumulated heat unit requirement and yield of irrigated wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) varieties under different crop growing environments in central Punjab.  J  Agrometeorol14 (2) : 147-153 (NAAS rating 6.6)

Velu G, Singh R P, Huerta-Espino J, Pena R J, Arun B, Mahendru Singh A, Yaqub Mujahid M, Sohu V S, Mavi G S, Crossa J, Alvarado G, Joshi A K and Pfeiffer W H 2012. Performance of biofortified spring wheat genotypes in target environments for grain zinc and iron concentrations. Field Crops Res 137 : 261-267. (NAAS rating 7.7)

Zou C Q, Zhang Y Q, Rashid A, Ram H, Savasli E, Arisoy R Z, Ortiz-Monasterio I, Simunji S, Wang Z H, Sohu V, Hassan M, Kaya Y, Onder O, Lungu O, Yaqub Mujahid M, Joshi A K, Zelenskiy Y, Zhang F S and Cakmak I  2012. Biofortification of wheat with zinc through fertilization in seven countries. Plant Soil361 : 119-130. (NAAS rating 7.8)

Phattarakul N, Rerkasem B, Li L J, Wu L H, Zou C Q, Ram H, Sohu V S, Kang B S, Surek H, Kalayci M, Yazici A, Zhang F S and Cakmak I 2012. Biofortification of rice grain with zinc through zinc fertilization in different countries. Plant Soil 361 : 131-141. (NAAS rating 7.8)

Sharma I, Bains N S, Sohu V S and Sharma R C 2011. Eight loci for resistance to Ustilagotritici race T₁₁ indicated in 20 wheat lines. Cereal Res Comm 39(3) : 376-385.(NAAS rating 6.0)

Rane J, Pannu R K, Sohu V S, Saini R S, Mishra B, Shoran J, Crossa J, Vargas M and Joshi A K 2007. Performance of yield and stability of advanced wheat genotypes under heat stress environments of the Indo-Gangetic plains. Crop Sci  47 : 1561-1573.(NAAS rating 8.1)

Appointments

He has been serving as Zonal Coordinator (North Western Plains Zone of India) of the All India Coordinated Wheat & Barley Improvement Project (ICAR) from June 1, 2009 to till date, coordinating wheat breeding activities in the North Western Plains Zone of India comprising Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, and parts of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. He was a Member, Standing Committee of the PPVFRA (Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Authority), New Delhi and Member of Institute Management Committee of the ICAR-Indian Institute of Wheat and Barley Research (formerly Directorate of Wheat Research), Karnal (2012 to 2015). At PAU, he served as Director TMIPRC (additional charge), Technology Marketing and Intellectual Property Rights Cell from April 1, 2015 to July 8, 2016 and Head, Dept. of Plant Breeding and Genetics, PAU, Ludhiana from June 10, 2021 to June 10, 2025. For the past nine years, he is leading the wheat research team at PAU as Incharge Wheat Section, Department of Plant Breeding & Genetics, PAU, Ludhiana from April 18, 2016 to till date.

Awards and honours

He is recipient of the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative’s 2018 Gene Stewardship Award (as team member) for best wheat research program in the world on rust resistance. He was awarded ICAR Chaudhary Devi Lal Outstanding AICRP Award 2011 for Best AICW&BIP Centre. He was awarded Dr. MV Rao Memorial Award for Distinguished Scientist 2022. Awarded Best AICRP Centre 2023 under All India Coordinated Wheat & Barley Improvement Project by ICAR-IIWBR. He also received Gold Medal for development of wheat variety PBW 343 by PAU at Annual Convocation. Recognizing his contributions, the PAU honoured him with ‘Appreciation Certificate for outstanding research work done in wheat breeding’ during Kisan Mela in 2017. He was elected Fellow of the Indian Society of Genetics and Plant Breeding, New Delhi and is a life member of several professional societies.

Ongoing Projects:

1. Breeding bread (and durum) wheat for high yield, quality and resistance to diseases in different agroclimates(funding agency Punjab Govt.)
2. Consortia for Research Platform (CRP) on Biofortification in selected crops for nutritional security- Wheat (funding agency ICAR)
3. Germplasm characterization and trait discovery in wheat using genomics approaches and its integration for improving climate resilience, productivity and nutritional quality (funding agency DBT)
4. Accelerating the mainstreaming of elevated zinc in global wheat breeding: a ‘Fluoride in the Water’ approach to nutrition(funding agency BMGF/DFID CIMMYT Mexico)
5. Accelerating Genetic Gains in Maize and Wheat for Improved Livelihoods (AGG)(funding agency BMGF CIMMYT Mexico)

Projects Accomplished:

1. Development of physiological approaches for breeding wheat varieties suited to different heat stress environments (funding agency NATP-ICAR)
2. Evaluation of basmati rice and wheat genotypes for their response to various tillage options and thermal tolerance in a system perspective(funding agency NATP-ICAR)
3. Increasing wheat production and building up of research capabilities in warmer areas and eastern India(funding agency NATP-ICAR)
4. Genetic enhancement and conservation agriculture for improving the productivity, profitability and sustainability of rice-wheat cropping system(funding agency ICAR)
5. Indo-Australian program on marker assisted wheat breeding Project 1 – Bioinformatics(funding agency ICAR-ACIAR)
6. Initial establishment of a farmer based experimentation network in the Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP) region : Pilot project for on-farm participatory climate change adaptation and visualization(funding agency Bioversity International, Rome, Italy through ICAR)
7. Mapping and characterization of leaf rust resistance gene transferred from Triticum monococcum to wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) (funding agency MBBISP, Texas A&M Univ., USA)
8. Increasing the productivity of the wheat crop under conditions of rising temperatures and water scarcity in South Asia (funding agency BMZ, Germany)
9. Biofortified wheat for improved human nutrition (funding agency Harvest Plus – CIMMYT, Mexico / CIAT, Colombia / IFPRI, USA)
10. Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) – Objective 4 (Wheat Breeding) -High-yielding, heat- and water-stress tolerant and disease-resistant wheat varieties for current and future cereal and mixed crop-livestock systems (funding agency CIMMYT, Mexico)
11. Scaling breeding and agronomic management for increasing wheat productivity and adaptation to climate change causing rising temperatures and water scarcity in South Asia (funding agency BMZ, Germany)