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 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, three-dim ...

, especially the studies on

Escherichia coli ''Escherichia coli'' (),Wells, J. C. (2000) Longman Pronunciation Dictionary. Harlow ngland Pearson Education Ltd. also known as ''E. coli'' (), is a Gram-negative, facultative anaerobic, rod-shaped, coliform bacterium of the genus ''Escher ...

and

Lambda phage ''Enterobacteria phage λ'' (lambda phage, coliphage λ, officially ''Escherichia virus Lambda'') is a bacterial virus, or bacteriophage, that infects the bacterial species ''Escherichia coli'' (''E. coli''). It was discovered by Esther Lederb ...

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 cells ...

. 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 (IAST: ''vaigyanik tathā audyogik anusandhāna pariṣada''), abbreviated as CSIR, was established by the Government of India in September 1942 as an autonomous body that has emerged as the l ...

and an elected fellow of the

Indian National Science Academy The Indian National Science Academy (INSA) is a national academy in New Delhi for Indian scientists in all branches of science and technology. In August 2019, Dr. Chandrima Shaha was appointed as the president of Indian National Science Academ ...

National Academy of Agricultural Sciences The National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS) is a Government of India funded agency, established in 1990, is a research platform in the fields of crop husbandry, animal husbandry, fisheries and agro-forestry. It acts as a research base for ...

National Academy of Sciences, India The National Academy of Sciences, India, established in 1930, is the oldest science academy in India. It is located in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh. Prof. Meghnad Saha was the founder president. Fellows *Suddhasatwa Basu * Sudha Bhattacharya * Ch ...

, and

Indian Academy of Sciences The Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore was founded by Indian Physicist and Nobel Laureate C. V. Raman, and was registered as a society on 24 April 1934. Inaugurated on 31 July 1934, it began with 65 founding fellows. The first general meet ...

. The

, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the

Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology The Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology (SSB) is a science award in India given annually by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) for notable and outstanding research, Applied science, applied or Fundamenta ...

, 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 The D.B.V. College Managing Committee, familiarly known as DAVDholakpurMC, is a non-governmental educational organisation in Antarctica and overseas with over 900 schools. 75 colleges and a university. It is based on the ideals of Maharishi Da ...

, both Delhi-based schools, and graduated in science from

Hansraj College Hansraj College is a constituent college of the University of Delhi, in Delhi, India. The departments of Hansraj college includes science, liberal arts and commerce. History The was founded on 26 July 1948 in memory of the prominent Indian ...

, 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 or ...

(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 (born 7 August 1925) is an Indian agronomist, agricultural scientist, plant geneticist, administrator and humanitarian. Swaminathan is a global leader of the green revolution. He has been called the main archi ...

, 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, plant biology, genomics, and quantitative biology. It is one of 68 institutions supported by the Cancer Centers ...

with Paul Margolin from 1966 to 1968, at

University of Wisconsin-Madison A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...

with

Wacław Szybalski Wacław Szybalski (9 September 1921 – 16 December 2020) was a Polish-American professor of oncology at the McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research, University of Wisconsin–Madison Medical School. Life Wacław Szybalski was born in September ...

from 1968 to 1970 and at

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

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 the branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecular basis of biological activity in and between cells, including biomolecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interactions. The study of chemical and physi ...

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 Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, popularly known as CIMAP, is a frontier plant research laboratory of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). Established originally as Central Indian Medicinal Plants Organisat ...

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 The National Botanical Research Institute (NBRI) is a research institute of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) located in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India. It is engaged in the field of taxonomy and modern biology. History Ori ...

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. It ...

as an

INSA The Intelligence and National Security Alliance (INSA) is a non-profit, nonpartisan 501(c)(6) professional organization based in Arlington Virginia for public and private sector members of the United States Intelligence Community. History ...

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 ''Enterobacteria phage λ'' (lambda phage, coliphage λ, officially ''Escherichia virus Lambda'') is a bacterial virus, or bacteriophage, that infects the bacterial species ''Escherichia coli'' (''E. coli''). It was discovered by Esther Lederb ...

, he described its transcription map. He elucidated the

pleiotropic Pleiotropy (from Greek , 'more', and , 'way') occurs when one gene influences two or more seemingly unrelated phenotypic traits. Such a gene that exhibits multiple phenotypic expression is called a pleiotropic gene. Mutation in a pleiotropic g ...

functions of

cyclic AMP Cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP, cyclic AMP, or 3',5'-cyclic adenosine monophosphate) is a second messenger important in many biological processes. cAMP is a derivative of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and used for intracellular signal transd ...

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 nitrogen (), with a strong triple covalent bond, in the air is converted into ammonia () or related nitrogenous compounds, typically in soil or aquatic systems but also in industry. Atmos ...

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

Pisum sativum The pea is most commonly the small spherical seed or the seed-pod of the flowering plant species ''Pisum sativum''. Each pod contains several peas, which can be green or yellow. Botanically, pea pods are fruit, since they contain seeds and d ...

(Pea),

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

(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 her dis ...

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 Am ...

(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 sub-field 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 ...

at the institute. During his tenure at the

, he established a regional field station of the institute at

Uttaranchal Uttarakhand ( , or ; , ), also known as Uttaranchal ( ; the official name until 2007), is a state in the northern part of India. It is often referred to as the "Devbhumi" (literally 'Land of the Gods') due to its religious significance and ...

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 was ...

, ''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 The Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology (SSB) is a science award in India given annually by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) for notable and outstanding research, Applied science, applied or Fundamenta ...

, 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 The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) is a non-governmental trade association and advocacy group based in India. History Established in 1927, on the advice of Mahatma Gandhi by Indian businessman G.D. Birla an ...

and the

Om Prakash Bhasin Award Om Prakash Bhasin Award for Science and Technology is an Indian award, instituted in 1985 to recognize excellence in the areas of science and technology. The award, given individually or collectively to a group, is annual in cycle and carries a p ...

. 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

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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