Raman Dhariwal, M.Sc. (Ag.), M.Phil., Ph.D.
Trait discovery and breeding of spring wheat and triticale at the interface of modern molecular biology, genetics, epigenetics, genomics, crop physiology and plant pathology.
Current research and/or projects
Development of breeder-friendly gene markers for selection of Fusarium head blight resistance
Nested association mapping to identify stripe rust resistance QTLs and their markers in spring wheat
Genome-wide association mapping to identify resistance to leaf spot diseases of spring wheat
Molecular characterization of stem solidness genes from hexaploid wheat
Implementing genomic selection for the development of next-generation CPSR wheat cultivars
Pyramiding of genes/QTLs for Fusarium head blight resistance using marker-assisted selection
Varietal mixtures to discourage pests, manage pest populations, and stabilize wheat yield across environments
Physiological breeding for developing drought-tolerant spring wheat cultivars for Canada
Genetics and breeding of enhanced weed competitiveness and allelopathy in spring wheat
Deciphering the epigenetic regulation of quality traits in wheat
Development of high-yielding spring wheat cultivars for western Canada
Research and/or project statements
Spring wheat and triticale cultivar research and development:
Pre-breeding and resistance germplasm development
Line breeding, doubled haploid production and speed breeding
Population enhancement & characterization
Introgression of key economic traits using traditional breeding, molecular markers and genomic selection
Plant phenotyping and selection for different traits
Data collection, analysis and interpretation
Operation of plant genotyping and trait discovery laboratory
Genetic mapping, next-generation sequencing and gene discovery
Bioinformatics and data science for agriculture
Development of novel tools, their protocols and manuals
Management of large data sets including next-generation sequencing and phenotypic data
Stewardship & quality assurance
Professional activities / interests
My current research interests lie primarily in the area of identification, molecular characterization and breeding of genes/QTL that make wheat plants more resilient against different biotic and abiotic stresses. In particular, I am focusing on breeding and unscrambling of the genetic and molecular basis of resistance and other mechanisms against various devastating diseases (i.e. fusarium head blight, loose smut, common bunt and cereal rusts) and insects (i.e. wheat stem sawfly and orange wheat blossom midge), pre-harvest sprouting, end quality traits, drought tolerance, better agronomics and high grain yield.
Education and awards
Education
Ph.D. in Genetics and Plant Breeding, 2012
Ch. Charan Singh University, India
Honors & Awards
Postdoctoral Fellowship, Jul 2016, University of Alberta.
NSERC Visiting Fellowship, Jul 2013, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council.
Best oral presentation award, Nov 2012, Punjab Agricultural University, International Conference.
NSF Research Fellowship, May 2011, National Science Foundation (NSF), the USA.
DBT Senior Research Fellowship, Dec 2009, Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Govt. of India.
Research Student Representative of the Year 2009, Jan 2009, Chaudhary Charan Singh University, India.
Highest Ranking Student of M.Phil.-2008 batch, Jul 2008, Chaudhary Charan Singh University, India.
DBT Junior Research Fellowship, Dec 2007, Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Govt. of India.
Highest Ranking Student of M.Sc.-2007 batch, Jul 2007, Chaudhary Charan Singh University, India.
International experience and/or work
Punjab Agricultural University, India
Project/research:
BREAD (Basic Research to Enable Agricultural Development): an alternating dwarfing gene system to improve abiotic stress tolerance in cereals.
May 2011 – Jun 2013
Chaudhary Charan Singh University, India
Project/research:
Analysis of host-pathogen interaction in leaf rust infection of wheat: a tanscriptomic approach
Dec 2007 – May 2011
Development of PCR based molecular markers in jute crop
Dec 2007 – Mar 2011
Molecular characterization of drought tolerance signaling (two-component system)
Dec 2007 – Mar 2011
Marker aided selection (MAS) for leaf rust resistance and pre-harvest sprouting in bread wheat.
Dec 2007 – Dec 2009
A study of sodium azide induced chromosomal aberrations in rice (Oryza sativa)
Jul 2005 – Jul 2007
Additional links
Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.co.in/citations?user=KN72O0IAAAAJ
ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Raman_Dhariwal
Key publications
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Wayne Xu, Andriy Bilichak, Raman Dhariwal, Maria A. Henriquez, Harpinder Randhawa
2021 - View publication details
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.10.11.463729
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Dhariwal, R., Henriquez, M.A., Hiebert, C., McCartney, C.A., Randhawa, H.S. (2020). Mapping of major fusarium head blight resistance from canadian wheat cv. Aac tenacious. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, [online] 21(12), 1-24. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms21124497
2020 - View publication details
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Brown, P., Zhou, Y., Tan, A.C., El-Esawi, M.A., Liehr, T., Blanck, O., Gladue, D.P., Almeida, G.M.F., Cernava, T., Sorzano, C.O., Yeung, A.W.K., Engel, M.S., Chandrasekaran, A.R., Muth, T., Staege, M.S., Daulatabad, S.V., Widera, D., Zhang, J., Meule, A., Honjo, K., Pourret, O., Yin, C.C., Zhang, Z., Cascella, M., Flegel, W.A., Goodyear, C.S., van Raaij, M.J., Bukowy-Bieryllo, Z., Campana, L.G., Kurniawan, N.A., Lalaouna, D., Hüttner, F.J., Ammerman, B.A., Ehret, F., Cobine, P.A., Tan, E.C., Han, H., Xia, W., McCrum, C., Dings, R.P.M., Marinello, F., Nilsson, H., Nixon, B., Voskarides, K., Yang, L., Costa, V.D., Bengtsson-Palme, J., Bradshaw, W., Grimm, D.G., Kumar, N., Martis, E., Prieto, D., Sabnis, S.C., Amer, S.E.D.R., Liew, A.W.C., Perco, P., Rahimi, F., Riva, G., Zhang, C., Devkota, H.P., Ogami, K., Basharat, Z., Fierz, W., Siebers, R., Tan, K.H., Boehme, K.A., Brenneisen, P., Brown, J.A.L., Dalrymple, B.P., Harvey, D.J., Ng, G., Werten, S., Bleackley, M., Dai, Z., Dhariwal, R., Gelfer, Y., Hartmann, M.D., Miotla, P., Tamaian, R., Govender, P., Gurney-Champion, O.J., Kauppila, J.H., Zhang, X., Echeverría, N., Subhash, S., Sallmon, H., Tofani, M., Bae, T., Bosch, O., Cuív, P.O., Danchin, A., Diouf, B., Eerola, T., Evangelou, E., Filipp, F., Klump, H., Kurgan, L., Smith, S.S., Terrier, O., Tuttle, N. (2019). Large expert-curated database for benchmarking document similarity detection in biomedical literature search. Database: The Journal of Biological Databases and Curation, [online] 2019 1-67. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/database/baz085
2019 - View publication details
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Brar, G.S., Dhariwal, R., Randhawa, H.S. (2018). Resistance evaluation of differentials and commercial wheat cultivars to stripe rust (Puccinia striiformis) infection in hot spot regions of Canada. European Journal of Plant Pathology, [online] 152(2), 493-502. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10658-018-1446-3
2018 - View publication details
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Dhariwal, R., Fedak, G., Dion, Y., Pozniak, C., Laroche, A., Eudes, F., Randhawa, H.S. (2018). High density single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) mapping and quantitative trait loci (QTL) analysis in a biparental spring triticale population localized major and minor effect fusarium head blight resistance and associated traits QTL. Genes, [online] 9(1), http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/genes9010019
2018 - View publication details
Research facility
ORCIDExpertise
Affiliations
Canadian Society of Agronomy