Dr Parvaze Ahmad Sofi
@skuastkashmir.ac.in
Professor Department of Genetics & Plant Breeding
S. K. UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES & TECHNOLOGY KASHMIR
EDUCATION
PhD Genetics & Plant Breeding
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Common bean breeding, Genetic resource conservation, Abiotic Stress, Seed quality, Root architecture
Scopus Publications
Scholar Citations
Scholar h-index
Scholar i10-index
Scopus Publications
Aaqif Zaffar, Rajneesh Paliwal, Michael Abberton, Sabina Akhtar, Rafiq Ahmad Mengnoo, Aamir Nazir Sheikh, Parvaze Ahmad Sofi, Mohd Ashraf Bhat, and Reyazul Rouf Mir
Elsevier BV
Samiullah Naik, Jebi Sudan, Uneeb Urwat, Mohammad Maqbool Pakhtoon, Basharat Bhat, Varun Sharma, Parvaze A. Sofi, Asif B. Shikari, Bilal A. Bhat, Najeebul Rehman Sofi,et al.
Wiley
AbstractBuckwheat (Fagopyrum spp.) is an important nutritional and nutraceutical‐rich pseudo‐cereal crop. Despite its obvious potential as a functional food, buckwheat has not been fully harnessed due to its low yield, self‐incompatibility, increased seed cracking, limited seed set, lodging, and frost susceptibility. The inadequate availability of genomics resources in buckwheat is one of the major reasons for this. In the present study, genome‐wide association mapping (GWAS) was conducted to identify loci associated with various morphological and yield‐related traits in buckwheat. High throughput genotyping by sequencing led to the identification of 34,978 single nucleotide polymorphisms that were distributed across eight chromosomes. Population structure analysis grouped the genotypes into three sub‐populations. The genotypes were also characterized for various qualitative and quantitative traits at two diverse locations, the analysis of which revealed a significant difference in the mean values. The association analysis revealed a total of 71 significant marker–trait associations across eight chromosomes. The candidate genes were identified near 100 Kb of quantitative trait loci (QTLs), providing insights into several metabolic and biosynthetic pathways. The integration of phenology and GWAS in the present study is useful to uncover the consistent genomic regions, related markers associated with various yield‐related traits, and potential candidate genes having implications for being utilized in molecular breeding for the improvement of economically important traits in buckwheat. Moreover, the identified QTLs will assist in tracking the desirable alleles of target genes within the buckwheat breeding populations/germplasm.
Aneesa Batool, Saika Bashir, Jebi Sudan, Momina Nazir, Gulam Nabi Yatoo, Anuj Ranjan, Vishnu D. Rajput, Parvaze A. Sofi, Zahoor Ahmad Bhat, Khurshed Hussain,et al.
CRC Press
Parvaze A. Sofi, Sajad Majeed Zargar, Ambreen Hamadani, Sadiah Shafi, Aaqif Zaffar, Ishrat Riyaz, Deepak Bijarniya, and P.V. Vara Prasad
Elsevier
Sadiah Shafi, Aaqif Zaffar, Ishrat Riyaz, Asif B. Shikari, S. Najeeb, Sajad Majeed Zargar, M. Djanaguiraman, S. Gurumurthy, P. V. V. Prasad, and Parvaze A. Sofi
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Sadiah Shafi, Insha Shafi, Aaqif Zaffar, Sajad Majeed Zargar, Asif B. Shikari, Anuj Ranjan, P.V. Vara Prasad, and Parvaze A. Sofi
Elsevier BV
Sajad Majeed Zargar, Madhiya Manzoor, Basharat Bhat, Amir Bashir Wani, Parvaze Ahmad Sofi, Jebi Sudan, Leonard Barnabas Ebinezer, Stefano Dall’Acqua, Gregorio Peron, and Antonio Masi
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Abstract Background Buckwheat (Fagopyrum spp.), belonging to the Polygonaceae family, is an ancient pseudo-cereal with high nutritional and nutraceutical properties. Buckwheat proteins are gluten-free and show balanced amino acid and micronutrient profiles, with higher content of health-promoting bioactive flavonoids that make it a golden crop of the future. Plant metabolome is increasingly gaining importance as a crucial component to understand the connection between plant physiology and environment and as a potential link between the genome and phenome. However, the genetic architecture governing the metabolome and thus, the phenome is not well understood. Here, we aim to obtain a deeper insight into the genetic architecture of seed metabolome in buckwheat by integrating high throughput metabolomics and genotyping-by-sequencing applying an array of bioinformatics tools for data analysis. Results High throughput metabolomic analysis identified 24 metabolites in seed endosperm of 130 diverse buckwheat genotypes. The genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) of these genotypes revealed 3,728,028 SNPs. The Genome Association and Prediction Integrated Tool (GAPIT) assisted in the identification of 27 SNPs/QTLs linked to 18 metabolites. Candidate genes were identified near 100 Kb of QTLs, providing insights into several metabolic and biosynthetic pathways. Conclusions We established the metabolome inventory of 130 germplasm lines of buckwheat, identified QTLs through marker trait association and positions of potential candidate genes. This will pave the way for future dissection of complex economic traits in buckwheat.
Saima Gani, Asha Nabi, Parvaze A. Sofi, Tariq. R. Rather, Baby Summuna, Fehim. Jeelani Wani, Mehraj. D. Shah, Bilal A. Padder, Tahir Sheikh, Reyazul Rouf Mir,et al.
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Sabreena Bhat, Muslima Nazir, Showkat A. Zargar, Samiullah Naik, Waseem Ali Dar, Bilal A. Bhat, Reetika Mahajan, Bashir Ahmad Ganai, Parvaze A. Sofi, and Sajad Majeed Zargar
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Abstract Buckwheat (Fagopyrum spp.) is an important crop in the high-altitude regions of the Northwest Indian Himalayas. The agro-climatic heterogeneity of this region offers a great deal of diversity in the agro-morphology of buckwheat species. In this study, a total of 61 accessions of Fagopyrum esculentum and Fagopyrum tataricum were characterized for 17 morphological (8 qualitative and 9 quantitative) traits. Significant differences (P < 0.0001) among all the traits were revealed by one-way analysis of variance. Further, significant phenotypic variability in both qualitative as well as quantitative traits was also observed. Both positive and negative correlations were observed between the traits of agronomic relevance. The principal component analysis (PCA) reveals about 69% variability among the first six components. The accessions were divided into two key clusters with numerous subclusters by considering the unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean dendrogram. A cluster of 19 accessions was formed utilizing a PCA scatter plot indicating accessions with maximum values for important quality traits like plant height, leaf blade width, stem colour (red), primary branches, inflorescence length, flower colour (greenish-yellow), seed anthocyanin colour (green), seed shape (ovate) and seed weight. These accessions can be of vital significance for future buckwheat breeding programmes. The findings from the current study will form a favourable base for genetic resource management, improved cultivation and applications of buckwheat at the commercial level in the northwestern Himalayas of India.
Bushra Rasool, Baby Summuna, Ivica Djalovic, Tariq Ahmad Shah, Parveez Ahmed Sheikh, Sachin Gupta, Sandhya Tyagi, Sierra Bilal, Rajeev Kumar Varshney, Ishfaq Abidi,et al.
Scientific Societies
Fusarium wilt (FW) caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. ciceri is a devastating disease of chickpea ( Cicer arietinum). To identify promising resistant genotypes and genomic loci for FW resistance, a core set of 179 genotypes of chickpea was tested for FW reactions at the seedling and reproductive stages under field conditions and controlled conditions in the greenhouse. Our results revealed that at the seedling stage, most of the genotypes were resistant, whereas at the reproductive stage, most of the genotypes were susceptible. Genotyping using a 50K Axiom® CicerSNP Array and trait data of FW together led to the identification of 26 significant ( P ≤ E-05) marker-trait associations (MTAs) for FW resistance. Among the 26 MTAs, 12 were identified using trait data recorded in the field (three at the seedling and nine at the reproductive stage), and 14 were identified using trait data recorded under controlled conditions in the greenhouse (six at the seedling and eight at the reproductive stage). The phenotypic variation explained by these MTAs varied from 11.75 to 15.86%, with an average of 13.77%. Five MTAs were classified as major, explaining more than 15% of the phenotypic variation for FW, and two were declared stable, being identified in two environments. One of the promising stable and major MTAs (Affx_123280060) detected in field conditions at the reproductive stage was also detected in greenhouse conditions at the seedling and reproductive stages. The stable and major (>15% PVE) MTAs can be used in chickpea breeding programs.
Anamika Pandey, Mohd. Kamran Khan, Mehmet Hamurcu, Tabinda Athar, Bayram Ali Yerlikaya, Seher Yerlikaya, Musa Kavas, Anjana Rustagi, Sajad Majeed Zargar, Parvaze A. Sofi,et al.
MDPI AG
The continuously changing environment has led to devastating effects on the normal growth and development of plants. This necessitates the understanding of different components that can be involved in alleviating these effects. In the last two decades, nitric oxide (NO) has been largely focused on as a molecule whose endogenous production and exogenous supply lead to several molecular and physiological changes in plants under stressed conditions. Although its role as a signaling molecule in endogenous production has been largely discussed, its function in dealing with contemporary abiotic stress conditions on exogenous supply remains comparatively less explored. There is growing evidence that NO plays a critical role in many physiological processes; however, there is debate about the exact mechanism(s) through which NO lessens abiotic stress on external supply. In this review, we discuss the studies that were focused on observing the effect of exogenous NO on different abiotic stresses including heavy metal stress, element deficiency or toxicity stress, salt stress, drought stress, ultraviolet radiation stress, waterlogging stress, and chilling stress. Though the positive effects of endogenous NO have been discussed in brief in different sections, the focus of the review is to discuss the effects of exogenous NO on plant grown under abiotic stresses. Deciphering the underlying mechanism of exogenous NO treatment may open up new ideas that can suggest the successful application of NO in agricultural regions to reduce the damaging influences of different abiotic stresses.
Shaista Khan, Tariq H. Masoodi, Nazir A. Pala, Shah Murtaza, Javeed A. Mugloo, Parvez A. Sofi, Musaib U. Zaman, Rupesh Kumar, and Amit Kumar
MDPI AG
Toxic substances have a deleterious effect on biological systems if accrued in ecosystems beyond their acceptable limit. A natural ecosystem can become contaminated due to the excessive release of toxic substances by various anthropogenic and natural activities, which necessitates rehabilitation of the environmental contamination. Phytoremediation is an eco-friendly and cost-efficient method of biotechnological mitigation for the remediation of polluted ecosystems and revegetation of contaminated sites. The information provided in this review was collected by utilizing various sources of research information, such as ResearchGate, Google Scholar, the Scopus database and other relevant resources. In this review paper, we discuss (i) various organic and inorganic contaminants; (ii) sources of contamination and their adverse effects on terrestrial and aquatic life; (iii) approaches to the phytoremediation process, including phytoextraction, rhizoremediation, phytostabilization, phytovolatilization, rhizofiltration, phytodegradation, phytodesalination and phytohydraulics, and their underlying mechanisms; (iv) the functions of various microbes and plant enzymes in the biodegradation process and their potential applications; and (v) advantages and limitations of the phytoremediation technique. The reported research aimed to adequately appraise the efficacy of the phytoremediation treatment and facilitate a thorough understanding of specific contaminants and their underlying biodegradation pathways. Detailed procedures and information regarding characteristics of ideal plants, sources of heavy metal contamination, rhizodegradation techniques, suitable species and removal of these contaminants are put forward for further application. Scientists, planners and policymakers should focus on evaluating possible risk-free alternative techniques to restore polluted soil, air and water bodies by involving local inhabitants and concerned stakeholders.
Madeeha Mansoor, Asmat Farooq, Ammarah Hami, Reetika Mahajan, Madhiya Manzoor, Sajad Ahmad Bhat, Imran Khan, Khalid Z. Masoodi, Parvaze A. Sofi, F. A. Khan,et al.
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Madhiya Manzoor, Ammarah Hami, Mohammad Maqbool Pakhtoon, Aneesa Batool, Aaqif Zaffar, Jebi Sudan, Gowhar Ali, Mohammad Anwar Khan, Parvaze Ahmad Sofi, Reetika Mahajan,et al.
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Jebi Sudan, Uneeb Urwat, Asmat Farooq, Mohammad Maqbool Pakhtoon, Aaqif Zaffar, Zafir Ahmad Naik, Aneesa Batool, Saika Bashir, Madeeha Mansoor, Parvaze A. Sofi,et al.
PeerJ
Rice is one of the most important staple plant foods that provide a major source of calories and nutrients for tackling the global hunger index especially in developing countries. In terms of nutritional profile, pigmented rice grains are favoured for their nutritional and health benefits. The pigmented rice varieties are rich sources of flavonoids, anthocyanin and proanthocyanidin that can be readily incorporated into diets to help address various lifestyle diseases. However, the cultivation of pigmented rice is limited due to low productivity and unfavourable cooking qualities. With the advances in genome sequencing, molecular breeding, gene expression analysis and multi-omics approaches, various attempts have been made to explore the genetic architecture of rice grain pigmentation. In this review, we have compiled the current state of knowledge of the genetic architecture and nutritional value of pigmentation in rice based upon the available experimental evidence. Future research areas that can help to deepen our understanding and help in harnessing the economic and health benefits of pigmented rice are also explored.
Peerzada Ishtiyak Ahmad, T. H. Masoodi, S. A. Gangoo, P. A. Sofi, Tahir Mushtaq, Mir Muskan Un Nisa, Mohan Reddy, Abhinav Mehta, Shrey Rakholia, and Bipin Charles
Springer Nature Singapore
Sajad Majeed Zargar, Ammarah Hami, Madhiya Manzoor, Rakeeb Ahmad Mir, Reetika Mahajan, Kaiser A. Bhat, Umar Gani, Najeebul Rehman Sofi, Parvaze A. Sofi, and Antonio Masi
Informa UK Limited
Buckwheat (Fagopyrum spp.) is an underutilized resilient crop of North Western Himalayas belonging to the family Polygonaceae and is a source of essential nutrients and therapeutics. Common Buckwheat and Tatary Buckwheat are the two main cultivated species used as food. It is the only grain crop possessing rutin, an important metabolite with high nutraceutical potential. Due to its inherent tolerance to various biotic and abiotic stresses and a short life cycle, Buckwheat has been proposed as a model crop plant. Nutritional security is one of the major concerns, breeding for a nutrient-dense crop such as Buckwheat will provide a sustainable solution. Efforts toward improving Buckwheat for nutrition and yield are limited due to the lack of available: genetic resources, genomics, transcriptomics and metabolomics. In order to harness the agricultural importance of Buckwheat, an integrated breeding and OMICS platforms needs to be established that can pave the way for a better understanding of crop biology and developing commercial varieties. This, coupled with the availability of the genome sequences of both Buckwheat species in the public domain, should facilitate the identification of alleles/QTLs and candidate genes. There is a need to further our understanding of the molecular basis of the genetic regulation that controls various economically important traits. The present review focuses on: the food and nutritional importance of Buckwheat, its various omics resources, utilization of omics approaches in understanding Buckwheat biology and, finally, how an integrated platform of breeding and omics will help in developing commercially high yielding nutrient rich cultivars in Buckwheat.
Humera Gulzar, P.A. Sofi, Nazir A. Pala, Ishtiyaq A. Peerzada, Imaad A. Shah, Sabreena Nazir, and Mohammad Kaif
Elsevier BV
Sheezan Rasool, Reetika Mahajan, Muslima Nazir, Kaisar Ahmad Bhat, Asif Bashir Shikari, Gowhar Ali, Basharat Bhat, Bilal A． Bhat, MD Shah, Imtiyaz Murtaza,et al.
Elsevier BV
Shamal Shasang Kumar, Owais Ali Wani, Shakeel Ahmad Mir, Subhash Babu, Vikas Sharma, Majeed Ul Hassan Chesti, Zahoor Ahmad Baba, Parvaze Ahmad Sofi, Fehim Jeelani Wani, Shahnawaz Rasool Dar,et al.
Frontiers Media SA
Food security and environmental health are directly linked with soil carbon (C). Soil C plays a crucial role in securing food and livelihood security for the Himalayan population besides maintaining the ecological balance in the Indian Himalayas. However, soil C is being severely depleted due to anthropogenic activities. It is well known that land use management strongly impacted the soil organic carbon (SOC) dynamics and also regulates the atmospheric C chemistry. Different types of cultivation practices, i.e., forest, plantations, and crops in the Kashmir Himalayas, India, has different abilities to conserve SOC and emit C in the form of carbon dioxide (CO2). Hence, five prominent land use systems (LUC) (e.g., natural forest, natural grassland, maize-field-converted from the forest, plantation, and paddy crop) of Kashmir Himalaya were evaluated to conserve SOC, reduce C emissions, improve soil properties and develop understanding SOC pools and its fractions variations under different land use management practices. The results revealed that at 0–20 cm and 20–40 cm profile, the soil under natural forest conserved the highest total organic carbon (TOC, 24.24 g kg−1 and 18.76 g kg−1), Walkley-black carbon (WBC, 18.23 g kg−1 and 14.10 g kg−1), very-labile-carbon (VLC, 8.65 g kg−1, and 6.30 g kg−1), labile-carbon (LC, 3.58 g kg−1 and 3.14 g kg−1), less-labile-carbon (VLC, 2.59 g kg−1, and 2.00 g kg−1), non-labile-carbon (NLC, 3.41 g kg−1 and 2.66 g kg-1), TOC stock (45.88 Mg ha−1 and 41.16 Mg ha−1), WBC stock (34.50 Mg ha−1 and 30.94 Mg ha−1), active carbon pools (AC, 23.14 Mg ha−1 and 20.66 Mg ha−1), passive carbon pools (PC, 11.40 Mg ha−1 and 10.26 Mg ha−1) and carbon management index (CMI, 100), followed by the natural grassland. However, the lowest C storage was reported in paddy cropland. The soils under natural forest and natural grassland systems had a greater amount of VLC, LC, LLC, and NLC fraction than other land uses at both depths. On the other hand, maize-field-converted-from-forest-land-use soils had a higher proportion of NLC fraction than paddy soils; nonetheless, the NLC pool was maximum in natural forest soil. LUS based on forest crops maintains more SOC, while agricultural crops, such as paddy and maize, tend to emit more C in the Himalayan region. Therefore, research findings suggest that SOC under the Kashmir Himalayas can be protected by adopting suitable LUS, namely forest soil protection, and by placing some areas under plantations. The areas under the rice and maize fields emit more CO2, hence, there is a need to adopt the conservation effective measure to conserve the SOC without compromising farm productivity.
Asma Hamid Mir, Mohd Ashraf Bhat, Humara Fayaz, Aijaz A. Wani, Sher A. Dar, Showkat Maqbool, Mohammad Yasin, Javid Iqbal Mir, Mohd Anwar Khan, Parvaze A. Sofi,et al.
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Nida Yousuf, Sher Ahmad Dar, Zahoor Ahmad Dar, Parvaze Ahmad Sofi, Aijaz Ahmad Lone, Asif Bashir Shikari, Shazia Gulzar, and Showkat Ahmad Waza
Bangladesh Journals Online (JOL)
Drought is one of the major constraints affecting the economic yield of maize worldwide. Present study was carried out to select the surrogates for drought resilience in 70 maize landraces collected from diverse agro-ecologies of Kashmir Himalayas. Significant variation was observed among the genotypes for all the traits under well-watered and drought conditions. Due to the drought stress, the highest reduction was observed for the canopy temperature (175.18%), followed by root volume (69.77%), top root biomass (69.1%), shoot biomass (67.2%), bottom root biomass (53.75%), chlorophyll content (22.85 SPAD units) and shoot height (21.63%). The reduction was also recorded for other traits like shoot to total biomass ratio (2.70%), relative water content (13.42 %), cell membrane stability (17.33%) and rooting depth (19.86%). Root to total biomass ratio was found to increase in response to drought stress (7.69%). A positive significant correlation was observed between grain yield and root volume, top root biomass, bottom root biomass, rooting depth, root to total biomass, chlorophyll content, cell membrane stability, canopy temperature depression and relative water content. These can be used for selection of appropriate surrogates of drought tolerant genotypes. The landraces viz., KD-L35, KD-L37, KD-L19, KD-L23, KD-L17, KD-L21, KD-L46, KD-L43, KD-L29, KD-L25 and KD-L38 showed promising performance under drought for most of the surrogates identified. The landraces selected can be used as sources of novel and/or favourable alleles to breed for climate resilient maize cultivars. Bangladesh J. Bot. 51(3): 487-498, 2022 (September)
Parvaze A. Sofi, Iram Saba, Asmat Ara, and Khalid Rehman
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Roaf Ahmad Rather, Farooq Ahmad Ahanger, Shafat Ahmad Ahanger, Umer Basu, M. Altaf Wani, Zahida Rashid, Parvaze Ahmad Sofi, Vishal Singh, Kounser Javeed, Alaa Baazeem,et al.
MDPI AG
The present systematic research on cultural, morphological, and pathogenic variability was carried out on eighty isolates of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum collected from major common bean production belts of North Kashmir. The isolates were found to vary in both cultural and morphological characteristics such as colony color and type, colony diameter, number of days for sclerotia initiation, sclerotia number per plate, sclerotial weight, and size. The colony color ranged between white and off-white with the majority. The colony was of three types, in majority smooth, some fluffy, and a few fluffy-at-center-only. Colony diameter ranged between 15.33 mm and 29 mm after 24 h of incubation. The isolates took 4 to 7 days for initiation of sclerotia and varied in size, weight, and number per plate ranging between 14 and 51.3. The sclerotial arrangement pattern on plates was peripheral, sub peripheral, peripheral, and subperipheral, arranged at the rim and scattered. A total of 22 Mycelial compatibility groups (MCGs) were formed with seven groups constituted by a single isolate. The isolates within MCGs were mostly at par with each other. The six isolates representing six MCGs showed variability in pathogenicity with isolate G04 as the most and B01 as the least virulent. The colony diameter and disease scores were positively correlated. Sclerotia were observed to germinate both myceliogenically and carpogenically under natural temperate conditions of Kashmir. Germplasm screening revealed a single resistant line and eleven partially resistant lines against most virulent isolates.
Kaisar Ahmad Bhat, Reetika Mahajan, Mohammad Maqbool Pakhtoon, Uneeb Urwat, Zaffar Bashir, Ali Asghar Shah, Ankit Agrawal, Basharat Bhat, Parvaze A. Sofi, Antonio Masi,et al.
Frontiers Media SA
The change in climatic conditions is the major cause for decline in crop production worldwide. Decreasing crop productivity will further lead to increase in global hunger rate. Climate change results in environmental stress which has negative impact on plant-like deficiencies in growth, crop yield, permanent damage, or death if the plant remains in the stress conditions for prolonged period. Cold stress is one of the main abiotic stresses which have already affected the global crop production. Cold stress adversely affects the plants leading to necrosis, chlorosis, and growth retardation. Various physiological, biochemical, and molecular responses under cold stress have revealed that the cold resistance is more complex than perceived which involves multiple pathways. Like other crops, legumes are also affected by cold stress and therefore, an effective technique to mitigate cold-mediated damage is critical for long-term legume production. Earlier, crop improvement for any stress was challenging for scientific community as conventional breeding approaches like inter-specific or inter-generic hybridization had limited success in crop improvement. The availability of genome sequence, transcriptome, and proteome data provides in-depth sight into different complex mechanisms under cold stress. Identification of QTLs, genes, and proteins responsible for cold stress tolerance will help in improving or developing stress-tolerant legume crop. Cold stress can alter gene expression which further leads to increases in stress protecting metabolites to cope up the plant against the temperature fluctuations. Moreover, genetic engineering can help in development of new cold stress-tolerant varieties of legume crop. This paper provides a general insight into the “omics” approaches for cold stress in legume crops.