Dr Nitin Uttam Kamble

Starch, the major storage carbohydrate in plants, is synthesised in plastids as semi-crystalline granules composed of two glucose polymers (glucans) – amylopectin and amylose which is relatively well conserved between species. However, major cereal crops like wheat, maize, rice, and barley have a huge diversity in starch granule morphology.

Nitin is interested in understanding the genes/proteins involved in the initiation of the starch granules and their regulation in determining the correct size, shapes, and numbers of starch granules in wheat.

After graduating with a PhD from the National Institute of Plant Genome Research (NIPGR), New Delhi, India, where Nitin worked on role and regulation of rice PROTEIN L-ISOASPARTYL METHYLTRANSFERASE (PIMT) in seed vigor and longevity in the Group of Dr. Manoj Majee.