Dr. Suresh Kumar Gupta: Tomato AGAMOUS LIKE-6 loss of functions unlocks high yield and climate resilient agriculture
Please note this event occurred in the past.
September 29, 2025 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm ET
Paige 202 or see Zoom link
Zoom link for all seminars:
https://umass-amherst.zoom.us/j/96515666133?pwd=2eTfLtbgkuGiAUSuH8R2r5vj1c0RTz.1
Dr. Suresh Kumar Gupta: “Tomato AGAMOUS LIKE-6 loss of functions unlocks high yield and climate resilient agriculture”
Abstract: The rapidly increasing world population is exerting enormous pressure to increase crop production for feeding everyone. At the same time, rising global temperature, changing rainfall patterns, and other environmental factors are leading to reduced crop yield. Seeds and fruits are vital elements of yield and thus of significant agronomic importance in sexually reproducing crop plants. The success of seed and fruit sets depends on pollination and fertilization, which are highly sensitive to environmental stressors like heat and drought. Therefore, the improvement of productivity relies on understanding the mechanism and targeted manipulation of regulators of fertilization-dependent fruit sets, which can create crops with higher yields irrespective of environmental conditions. In this seminar, I will present the findings on how AGAMOUS LIKE-6 regulates the fertilization-dependent fruit set in tomato. Specifically, the CRISPR-Cas9-mediated loss-of-function mutant of tomato AGL6 enables fruit set and development without need of fertilization, thereby increasing fruit yield.
Bio: Suresh Kumar Gupta is a Senior research scientist at the Stockbridge School of Agriculture, UMass, Amherst with Prof. Om Parkash Dhankher. He received his PhD from University of Hyderabad, India. Prior to UMass Amherst, he worked as Postdoc at Agricultural Research Organization (ARO), Volcani Center, Israel with Dr. Tzahi Arazi and Michigan State University (MSU), USA with Prof. Erich Grotewold. His research focuses on developing sustainable solutions to address the global challenges of food and energy security. He is particularly interested in uncovering the genetic factors and networks that influence key biological processes in plants, which can be utilized to enhance the agronomic potential of food and bioenergy crops.