Dr. Surabhi Tomar - ASSISTANT PROFESSOR (GRADE- I) | JIIT Noida

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Dr. Surabhi Tomar

Biography

Dr. Surabhi Tomar joined the Jaypee Institute of Information Technology as an Assistant Professor (Grade-I) in July 2025. She is a plant molecular biologist with expertise in abiotic stress tolerance, plant developmental biology, and genome engineering for crop improvement. Before joining JIIT, she worked as a Research Associate at ICGEB, focusing on enhancing rice yield via CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing and investigating gene cross-talk during developmental stages to understand organ fate determination. She earned her Ph.D. in Plant Stress Biology from the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB), Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, where she worked towards the functional characterization of cystathionine β-synthase (CBS) domain–containing proteins in rice. Her work integrated in silico analysis, molecular genetics, biochemical assays, and transgenic studies to elucidate gene function in stress resilience. Dr. Tomar holds an M.Tech. in Agricultural Biotechnology from the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, where she graduated as the Best Student in her specialization. Her research bridges fundamental plant biology with applied crop science, aiming to develop stress-resilient, high-yielding varieties.

Research Highlights

Dr. Surabhi Tomar’s research focuses on understanding and manipulating molecular pathways in plants to enhance stress tolerance and improve yield. Her Ph.D. work involved the functional characterization of CBS domain–containing proteins (CDCPs) in rice, a largely unexplored protein family in plants. Using in silico analyses and qRT-PCR, she identified key genes responsive to developmental and abiotic stress cues in contrasting rice genotypes. She developed overexpression lines of selected CDCP members and performed detailed functional analyses, including subcellular localization, protein-protein interaction studies, bio-layer interferometry, and stress-based phenotypic validations. Additionally, she employs CRISPR/Cas9-mediated genome engineering to precisely modify key regulatory genes for improving agronomic traits and accelerating crop improvement. She also investigates plant–microbe interactions to understand how molecular signalling networks coordinate stress responses and beneficial microbial associations to enhance plant resilience.

Areas of Interest

Abiotic stress tolerance in crops
Genome editing for trait improvement in crops
Functional genomics of stress-responsive proteins
Molecular signaling pathways in plants

Publications

Y. Chatterjee, S. Tomar, A. Pareek, S.L. Singla-Pareek, “OsLdh7 overexpression in rice confers submergence tolerance by regulating key metabolic pathways: anaerobic glycolysis, ethanolic fermentation and amino acid metabolism”, Plant, Cell & Environment, vol. 48, no. 4, pp. 2804–2820, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1111/pce.15358.
S. Tomar, A. Subba, Y. Chatterjee, A. Pareek, S.L. Singla-Pareek, “A Cystathionine beta-synthase domain containing protein, OsCBSCBS4, interacts with OsSnRK1A and OsPKG and functions in abiotic stress tolerance in rice”, Plant, Cell & Environment, vol. 48, no. 4, pp. 2630–2646, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1111/pce.15061.
S. Tomar, A. Subba, M. Bala, A.K. Singh, A. Pareek, S.L. Singla-Pareek, “Genetic conservation of CBS domain containing protein family in Oryza species and their association with abiotic stress responses,” International Journal of Molecular Sciences, vol. 23, no. 3, pp. 1687, 2022. doi:10.3390/ijms23031687.
A. Subba, S. Tomar, A. Pareek, S.L. Singla-Pareek, “The chloride channels: Silently serving the plants,” Physiologia Plantarum, vol. 171, no. 4, pp. 688-702, 2021. doi: 10.1111/ppl.13240.