Profile: Jagadis Gupta Kapuganti

Abstract

What inspired your interest in plant science? I consider plants to be the most important and beautiful living things on the Earth. I grew up in the southern part of India, in the countryside village of Dharmavaram which is in the Andhra Pradesh state. During my school years, I was aware of various varieties of plants such as mango, custard apple and several exotic palms. When I was a child, I would grow vegetables and observe their development, and my family members still remember those days. Some of my school friends were from farming communities and I used to go to their fields and observe their crops and trees. Plants provide us with food, fodder, medicines, textiles, timber, oxygen. In a nutshell, they are ever‐present in our daily lives! Starting from germination through to maturity, flowering and senescence, all plant science research is very interesting. Since plants are an integral part of our lives and give us so much, we need to protect them from biotic and abiotic stresses and improve them. Plant science is fascinating as it deals with a vast amount of biology and there is huge scope to develop crop plants to obtain high yielding varieties to ensure food security. Since my PhD, the analysis of plant metabolism, and of adaptive responses to hypoxia, has been my long lasting interest in plant science.