Personal Information

Dr. K R Soren Dr. K R Soren Designation : Sr. Scientist (Agricultural Biotechnology) khela.soren@icar.gov.in khela.soren@icar.gov.in view resume

Dr. K R Soren, a Senior Scientist, graduated in Agricultural Sciences from BHU, Varanasi, in
2002. Subsequently, he completed his Master’s in Plant Biotechnology (2002-2004) and
Ph.D. in Plant Biochemistry (2004-2008) at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New
Delhi. Joining ICAR as an ARS Scientist in 2008, he served at the Indian Institute of Pulses
Research, Kanpur, from year 2008 to 2023, where he developed expertise in molecular
breeding and functional genomics in pulse crops. He contributed to the re-sequencing of more
than 3000 chickpea germplasm lines, the development of genetic and genomics resources,
and mapping several QTL/genes for biotic and abiotic stress tolerance in pulses. He
developed over 10 varieties of Chickpea and Field pea, including three marker-assisted
derived chickpea varieties: IPCL4-14 (IPCMAS-1) for improved drought tolerance,
SAMRIDDHI (IPCMB19-3) for fusarium wilt resistance (race-2), and Pusa Chickpea 20211
(Pusa Chickpea Manav) for wilt resistance for India. Having supervised eight M.Sc students,
Dr. Soren has published over sixty research articles in peer-reviewed journals. Currently, he
serves at ICAR-IIAB, Ranchi, Jharkhand.

Plant Molecular Biology and Functional Genomics
  1. Soren KR, Madugula P, Kumar N, Barmukh R, Sengar MS, Bharadwaj C, Sharma PC, Singh S, Bhandari A, Singh J, Sanwal SK, Pal M, PR, SP, Mann A, Sagurthi SR, PS S, Siddique KH, Singh NP, Roorkiwal M, Varshney RK (2020) Genetic Dissection and Identification of Candidate Genes for Salinity Tolerance Using Axiom®CicerSNP Array in Chickpea. Int. J. Mol. Sci., 21, 5058. doi.org/10.3390/ijms21145058
  2. Chellapilla Bharadwaj*, Shailesh Tripathi*, Soren KR, Mahendar Thudi, Rajesh K.Singh, Seema Sheoran, Manish Roorkiwal, Basavanagouda Siddanagouda Patil, Annapurna Chitikineni, Ramesh Palakurthi, Anil Kumar Vemula, Abhishek Rathore, Yogesh Kumar, Sushil K.Chaturvedi, Biswajit Mondal, Pichandampalayam Subramaniam Shanmugavadivel, Avinash K. Srivastava, Girish P.Dixit Narendra P.Singh, Rajeev K. Varshney (2021). Introgression of QTL hot spot region enhances drought tolerance and grain yield in three elite chickpea cultivars. Plant Genome, DOI: 10.1002/tpg2.20076.
  3. Kumar, N*., Soren, KR., Bharadwaj, C., PR, S. P., Shrivastava, A. K., Pal, M., ... & Varshney, R. K. (2021). Genome-wide transcriptome analysis and physiological variation modulates gene regulatory networks acclimating salinity tolerance in chickpea. Environmental and Experimental Botany, 104478. 187 doi.org/10.1016/j.envexpbot.2021.104478
  4. Barmukh R*., Soren, KR., Madugula P., Priyanka Gangwar., PS S., Bharadwaj C., K Aravind Kumar., Sushil Kumar Chaturvedi., Bhandari A., Singh NP., Roorkiwal M., Varshney RK (2021) Construction of a high-density genetic map and QTL analysis for yield, yield components and agronomic traits in chickpea. PLos ONE 16(5): e0251669 doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0251669
  5. Varshney, R. K., Roorkiwal, M., Sun, S., Bajaj, P., Chitikineni, A., Thudi, M. ... Soren, K R & Liu, X. (2021). A chickpea genetic variation map based on the sequencing of 3,366 genomes. Nature, 1-6.
  6. Abhishek Bohra, Gandam Prasad, Abhishek Rathore, Rachit K Saxena, Satheesh Naik SJ, Shalini Pareek, Rintu Jha, Lekha Pazhamala, Dibendu Datta, Gaurav Pandey, Abha Tiwari, Alok Kumar Maurya, Khela Ram Soren, Mohd Akram, Rajeev K Varshney, Narendra P Singh (2021) Global gene expression analysis of pigeonpea with male sterility conditioned by A2 cytoplasm. Plant Genome; e20132. doi.org/10.1002/tpg2.20132.
  7. Aidbhavi, R., Soren, K.R., Bandi, S.M., Ranjitha, M.R. and Kodandaram, M.H., 2023. Infestation, distribution and diversity indices of bruchid species on edible stored pulses in India. Journal of Stored Products Research, 101, p.102085. doi.org/10.1016/j.jspr.2023.102085
  8. Aravind Kumar K, Pallavi S, Soren KR, Singh NP. (2019) A modified pod specific promoter for high level heterologous expression if cis/trans genes in legumes. Legume Research, DOI: 10.18805/LR-4073.
  9. Aravind Kumar Konda, PR Sabale, Pallavi Singh, Khela Ram Soren, Shanmugavadivel P.S. & N P Singh (2019) Systems biology approaches reveal a multi-stress responsive WRKY transcription factor and stress associated gene co-expression networks in chickpea. Current Bioinformatics Special Issue, 14, 1-11 DOI:10.2174/1574893614666190204152500.
  10. Konda, A. K., Farmer, R., Soren, K. R., PS, S., & Setti, A. (2018). Structural modelling and molecular dynamics of a multi-stress responsive WRKY TF-DNA complex towards elucidating its role in stress signalling mechanisms in chickpea. Journal of Biomolecular Structure and Dynamics, 36(9), 2279-2291. doi.org/10.1080/07391102.2017.1349690
  11. Gurumurthy, S., Soren, K.R., Pradhan, A., Rane, J. and Pathak, H., 2022. Kharif Chickpea: A New Crop for the Western Maharashtra. National Academy Science Letters, pp.1-3.
  12. Iquebal MA, Soren KR, Gangwar P, Shanmugavadivel PS, Aravind K, Singla D, Jaiswal S, Jasrotia RS, Chaturvedi SK, Singh NP, Varshney RK, Rai A and Kumar D (2017). Discovery of Putative Herbicide Resistance Genes and Its Regulatory Network in Chickpea Using Transcriptome Sequencing. Front. Plant Sci. 8:958. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2017.00958.
  13. Jorben, J., Apoorva, R. A. O., Chowluru, S. N., Tomar, S., Kumar, N., Bharadwaj, C. ... & Soren, K. R. (2023). Identification of multi-race Fusarium wilts resistance in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) using rapid hydroponic phenotyping. Phytopathologia Mediterranea vol. 62, no. 1, pp. 3–15. DOI: 10.36253/phyto-13352
  14. Poornima, KN., Sabaale, PR., Patil, PG., DAS, A., Soren, KR and Singh, NP (2017) PCR based race identification of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. ciceri using molecular markers. Journal of Food Legumes 30(1): 6-10.
  15. Kumar, A., Panda, P. A., Lal, M. K., Ngangkham, U., Sahu, C., Soren, K. R., & Sharma, S. (2020). Addition of pulses, cooking oils, and vegetables enhances resistant starch and lowers the glycemic index of rice (Oryza sativa L.). Starch‐Stärke, 72(9-10), doi.org/10.1002/star.201900081
  16. Kumar, Jitendra, Debjyoti Sen Gupta, Ravi Kesari, Renu Verma, Senthil Kumar Murugesan, Partha Sarathi Basu, Soren KR, Sanjeev Gupta, and Narendra Pratap Singh (2021) Comprehensive RNA-seq analysis for identification of genes expressed under heat stress in lentil. Physiologia Plantarum. doi.org/10.1111/ppl.13419.
  17. Kumar, N., Bharadwaj, C., Sahu, S., Shiv, A., Shrivastava, A.K., Reddy, S.P.P., Soren, K.R., Patil, B.S., Pal, M., Soni, A. and Roorkiwal, M., 2021. Genome-wide identification and functional prediction of salt-stress related long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.). Physiology and Molecular Biology of Plants, 27(11):2605– 2619. 9 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12298-021-01093-0
  18. Kumar, N., Roorkiwal, M., Pal, M., Patil, B.S., Soni, A., Joshi, N., Priya, P.S., Meena, M.C., Soren, K.R., Bharadwaj, C. and Varshney, R.K., 2021. Response of shoot ionic (Na+/K+) distribution on yield and agro-physiological traits in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) recombinant inbred lines population under salinity. Indian Journal of Genetics and Plant Breeding, 81(04), pp.92-95.
  19. Mamatha B C, K Rudresh, N Karthikeyan, M Kumar, "Ranjan Das, P B Taware, P S Khapte, K R Soren, J Rane, S Gurumurthy (2023). Vegetal protein hydrolysates reduce the yield losses in off-season crops under combined heat and drought stress. Physiology and Molecular Biology of Plants. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12298-023-01334-4.
  20. Neeraj Kumar, C. Bharadwaj, C. Tara Satyavathi, Madan Pal, Tapan Kumar, Tripti Singhal, Supriya Sachdeva, P. K. Jain, B. S. Patil and K. R. Soren. (2017) Morpho- Physiological Characterization and Grouping (SAHN) of Chickpea Genotypes for Salinity Tolerance Vegetos- An International Journal of Plant Research. doi: 10.5958/2229-4473.2017.00045.3
  21. Palakurthi, R., Jayalakshmi, V., Kumar, Y., Kulwal, P., Yasin, M., Kute, N. S., Soren KR... & Varshney, R. K. (2021). Translational Chickpea Genomics Consortium to accelerate genetic gains in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.). Plants, 10(12), 2583; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants10122583
  22. Pawan Kumar Mohanty, R. Shiv Ramakrishnan, B. C. Mamatha, R. K. Samaiah, K.R. Soren, Jagadish Rane, Sanket J. More, Ashish Kumar and Gurumurthy S* (2023) The New introduction of Kharif Chickpea for vegetable pulses cultivation in semi-arid region on India. Scientist, USA
  23. Singh, M.K., Roorkiwal, M., Rathore, A., Soren, K.R., Pithia, M.S., Yasin, M., Barpete, S., Singh, S., Barmukh, R., Das, R.R. and Gangwar, P., 2022. Evaluation of Global Composite Collection Reveals Agronomically Superior Germplasm Accessions for Chickpea Improvement. Agronomy, 12(9), p.2013
  24. Soren KR, Aravind KK, Priyanka Gangwar, Vijay A. Tiwari C, Shanmugavadivel PS, Parihar AK, Dixit GP and Singh NP (2020) Development of SSR markers and association studies of markers with phenology and yield-related traits in grass pea (Lathyrus sativus). Crop and Pasture Science 71(8) 768-775. doi.org/10.1071/CP19557.
  25. Soren, K.R., Tripathi, S., Pareek, S., Hembram, M., Gangwar, P., Abrol, S., Bohra, A., Kumar, K., Konda, A.K., Akram, M. and Mishra, R.K., 2021. Comparative time series RNA-seq analysis of Pigeonpea root tissues in response to Fusarium udum infection. Frontiers in Fungal Biology, 2, p.19. doi: 10.3389/ffunb.2021.664953
  26. Supriya Sachdeva, C. Bharadwaj, Vinay Sharma, B.S. Patil, K.R. Soren, Tapan Kumar, Sanjay Kumar, Sarvajeet Singh, S.K. Chauhan and KV Bhat (2017) Selection Indices to Discern Response of Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) Genotypes to Drought Stress. International Journal of Tropical Agriculture 35 (1):15-23. ISSN: 0254-8755.
  27. Supriya Sachdeva, Shruti Dawar, Upasana Rani, Basavanagouda Siddanagouda Patil, Khela Ram Soren, Sarvjeet Singh, Satish Kumar Sanwal, Sanjeev K. Chauhan, Chellapilla Bharadwaj (2019) Identification of SSR markers linked to Botrytis grey mould resistance in chickpea (Cicer arietinum). Phytopathol. Mediterr., 58 (2), 285-294, doi.org/10.14601/Phytopathol Mediter-10616.
  28. Supriya Sachdeva1a, C. Bharadwaj, Vinay Sharma, Neeraj Kumar, KvBhat, B. S. Patil, K. R. Soren, S. K. Chaturvedi, Manish Roorkiwal, S. K. Chauhan and Rajeev Varshney (2017) Morpho-Physiological Grouping of Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) Genotypes on the Basis of their Response to Drought Stress. International Journal of Tropical Agriculture 35 (1):5-13. ISSN: 0254-8755.
  29. Yadava, Y. K., Chaudhary, P., Yadav, S., Rizvi, A. H., Kumar, T., Srivastava, R., Soren, KR ... & Jain, P. K. (2023). Genetic mapping of quantitative trait loci associated with drought tolerance in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.). Scientific Reports, 13(1), 17623.
  30. Yogesh Kumar*, B. Mondal, A.K. Srivastava, U.C. Jha, Archana Singh, S.B. Revanappa, L. Manjunatha, K.R. Soren, A.S. Yadav, R, K, S, Yadav, S.K. Chaturvedi, G.P. Dixit and N.P. Singh. Notification and germplasm registration Variety Kabuli chickpea, IPCK 2013-163 (Madhav) in Indian J. Genet & Plant Breed, (2022) 82(4): 530-533
  31. Jaiswal, S., Singh, L. B., Kumar, K., Vijayan, J., Shettigar, N., Jha, S. K., & Soren, K. R. (2023). Anti-CRISPR proteins: a weapon of phage-bacterial arm race for genome editing. The Nucleus, 1-13. doi.org/10.1007/s13237-023-00457-z
  32. Nikhil, A., Gangadhar, L., Rathore, M., Soren, K. R., & Lal, G. M. (2023). Molecular Characterization and Diversity Analysis of Green Gram [Vigna radiate (L.) Wilczek] by Using SSR Markers. International Journal of Plant & Soil Science, 35(19), 1893-1902. DOI: 10.9734/IJPSS/2023/v35i193741
  33. Mamatha, B. C., Rudresh, K., Karthikeyan, N., Kumar, M., Das, R., Taware, P. B., ... Soren, KR...& Gurumurthy, S. (2023). Vegetal protein hydrolysates reduce the yield losses in off-season crops under combined heat and drought stress. Physiology and Molecular Biology of Plants, 29(7), 1049-1059. doi.org/10.1007/s12298-023-01334-4
Chapters in books:
  1. Shanmugavadivel P.S., Aravind Kumar K., Soren K.R., Yadav G. (2019) Cloning of Genes Underlying Quantitative Resistance for Plant Disease Control. In: Wani S. (eds) Disease Resistance in Crop Plants. Springer, Cham, Disease Resistance in Crop Plants pp 21-44 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20728-1_2, ISBN978-3-030-20727-4.
  2. Gurumurthy S, Karam Husain, Rudresh K, Amar, Yashwanth RD, Vaibhav Kumar, Kalpana Tiwari, Meena SK, and Soren KR. Emerging Technologies for Abiotic Stress Management in Crop Plants. IP Innovative Publication Pvt. Ltd. ISBN 978-39-88022-56-9
  3. Gurumurthy S, Vijay Laxmi, Basu PS, Gopala, Nitesh SD, Prakash HG, Nath CP, Basavaraja, T and Soren KR. Instrumentation Techniques for Assessing Stress Tolerance in Crops. IP Innovative Publication Pvt. Ltd. ISBN 978-39-88022-56-9
  4. Datta S, Nandeesha P, Soren KR and Das A. Biotechnological approaches for improvement of pulse crops. Biotechnology Vol 2. Plant Biotechnology, pp 139-184, Stadium Press, LLC, USA Ed., P A Kumar. (2012).
  5. A Das, S. Thakur, K.R. Soren, S. Datta, and N P Singh Transgenic Strategies towards Nutritional Enrichment of Crops. Biofortification of Food Crops, DOI 10.1007/978-81- 322-2716-8_9.
  6. Soren K.R., Shanmugavadivel P.S., Gangwar P., Singh P., Das A., Singh N.P. (2016) Genomics-Enabled Breeding for Enhancing Micronutrients in Crops. In: Singh U., Praharaj C., Singh S., Singh N. (eds) Biofortification of Food Crops. Springer, New Delhi 115-128.DOI 10.1007/978-81-322-2716-8_10. Print ISBN 978- 81-322-2714-4.
  7. Abhishek Bohra, Uday Jah, Balwant Singh, Khela ram Soren, I P Singh, Sushil Kumar Chaturvedi, Nadarajan, N P Sing.Omic approaches in pulses crop. DOI: 10.1201/b16352-5
  8. Shanmugavadivel P.S., Aravind Kumar K., Soren K.R., Yadav G. (2019) Cloning of Genes Underlying Quantitative Resistance for Plant Disease Control. In: Wani S. (eds) Disease Resistance in Crop Plants. Springer, Cham, Disease Resistance in Crop Plants pp 21-44 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20728-1_2, ISBN 978-3-030- 20727-4.
Popular articles:
  1. Gurumurthy S, Soren KR...et al., New screening technique for heat stress in chickpea. Pulses Newsletter, Jan-March, 2018.
  2. A.K Srivastava, Yogesh Kumar, Rishikesh Kumar and K R Soren., Screening chickpea genotypes for chilling tolerance under field condition
  3. Shanmugavadivel, PS., Soren, KR., Aravind Konda., Singh, Pallavi and Singh, N.P., Pre- mRNA Based Microsatellite Markers in Chickpea.
  4. Kuldeep Kumar, Sudhir Kumar, Awindra Singh., KR Soren, Meenal Rathore., Malkhan Singh, N P Singh. An efficient, quick and cost effective hydroponics based salinity screening methodology.
  5. Aravind Kumar Konda, Nikhil Tanya and K R Soren. Proteome wide-identification of SSCPs in Cajanus cajan with a putative role in plant defence.
  6. Aravind Kumar Konda, Harika a, Basu P.S, Sujayanand G.K, Soren, KR, Shanmugavadivel PS, Senthil Kumar M and Singh NP. Conserved synteny and tandem duplication events drive the expansion of intronless WIP gene family in chickpea.
Awards and Recognitions
  1. Indian Society of Pulses Research and Development (ISPRD), Fellow 2020.
  2. Best chickpea research team award at ICAR-IIPR, Kanpur 2020
  3. Best fieldpea research team award at ICAR-IIPR, Kanpur 2023
  4. Sardar Patel best ICAR Institute 2017-18: Contribution in varietal DNA finger printing and research article publication.