The Department of Plant Molecular Biology was established in 1988 under the Faculty of Interdisciplinary and Applied Sciences to cater to the needs of students in frontier areas of plant biology and to carry out research on Molecular Aspects of Plant Biology and Biotechnology.  It offers M.Sc., degree in Plant Molecular Biology and Bioltechnology and M.Phil. and Ph.D. degrees in Plant Molecular Biology.  The faculty includes four Professors (Dr A.K. Tyagi, Dr J.P. Khurana, Dr P. Khurana and Dr A. Grover) and three Readers (Dr I. Dasgupta, Dr A. Sharma and Dr S. Kapoor).  In addition, ten post-doctoral scientists and thirty five research scholars are engaged in research exclusively. The research activity  and central instrument facility are supported by the technical and scientific staff.

Major areas of research include:

(i) Novel plant genes and regulation of their expression

(ii) Signal transduction and photobiology,

(iii) Transgenics for crop improvement, 

(iv) Stress molecular biology,

(v) Plant biotechnology for human health, 

(vi) Rice genomics and

(vi) Gene function exploration.

The research is supported by major grants in the form of “Centre for Plant Molecular Biology” and “Genome Initiatives on  Sequencing, Gene Discovery and Function” by DBT, in addition to other competitive grants from DST, UGC, European Commission and the Rockefeller Foundation. The faculty is involved in multi–institutional as well as international projects.  The  research  has  yielded  about 200 publications and a few patents have been filed.  Efforts of the faculty have been recognized in the form of fellowships to national scientific academies  and national awards.  While providing due emphasis for basic research and training, the Department endeavors to convert knowledge into application for human welfare.