Ranjit Singh Kataria

B.V.Sc. & A. H. in 1987 from College of Veterinary Sciences, Haryana Agri. Uni. Hisar, Haryana, India;  M.VSc in Biotechnology from ICAR-IVRI, Izatnagar, UP in 1991 and Ph.D in Animal Biotechnology from ICAR-IVRI, Izatnagar in 1999.

• Principal Scientist at ICAR-NBAGR since January 2009
• Sr. Scientist at ICAR-NBAGR from 2004 to December 2008
• Scientist/ Sr. Scientist at ICAR-IVRI from September 1994 to April 2004
• Scientist at ICAR-NDRI from February 1994 to September 1994
• Scientistat ICAR-NAARM from September 1993 to February 1994

Genetic diversity analysis of livestock species, identification and analysis of genes, those governing meat quality, adaptation and disease resistance in buffalo and cattle.

Over 28 years of research experience in the field of Animal Biotechnology and has completed several projects working in the areas of molecular genetics and functional genomics as well as molecular diagnostics and vaccinology. Undergone international training at University of Minnesota, U.S.A for three months in the area of Animal Biotechnology. Was selected for DBT sponsored short term overseas associateship for a period of six months and undertook training in the area of molecular genetics and functional genomics at Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, USA in 2007. Also underwent three months’ NAIP (ICAR) sponsored training in the area of Genome Resource Conservation at Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, USA in 2010. Has participated in several national training programme related to biotechnology and conducted several training programmes in the field of animal biotechnology as faculty and coordinator. Currently working in the area of exploring genomics and transcriptomics to identify plausible biomarker for quality semen production in buffalo bulls under heat stress. Have more than 210 research papers published in national and international journals. Salient research accomplishments include

• Helped in developing molecular detection methodologies and recombinant antigen production against important livestock and poultry diseases like Bovine Herpes Virus, Blue Tongue Virus, Infectious Bursal Disease, Newcastle Disease, Hog Cholera etc.
• As Co-PI in DBT sponsored project- generated ESTs data and cDNA subtracted cDNA libraries and characterized important milk production genes.
• Genetic diversity analysis of Nagpuri and other buffalo breeds of India carried out using set of microsatellite markers.
• Mitochondrial D-loop region of various buffalo breeds of India analysed to find out evolutionary relationship, including swamp and riverine types.
• Acted as co-investigator of the project to identify and characterize pure swamp buffaloes for the first time in the Northeast region of India.
• SNP based polymorphism analysis of several genes associated with production and disease resistance traits in Indian buffaloes carried out, helping in understanding genetic diversity and evolution of candidate genes in buffalo.
• Expression analysis of genes related to fecundity in sheep and also effect of nutritional status of ewes studied under DBT sponsored inter-institutional project in collaboration with Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute.
• Worked as Co-operating Centre PI in NAIP sponsored project on ‘Toll-like receptor genes of farm animals’ to document the genetic diversity and evolution of TLRs in buffalo and worked as Co-PI in the NAIP project on buffalo mammary gland transcriptome analysis, delineating the expression profiles of milk production genes during different physiological stages of lactation cycle in buffalo.
• Identification of riverine-swamp hybrids among Chilika buffaloes of Odisha and mitochondrial D-loop sequencing and microsatellite marker based genetic characterization of Odisha buffaloes.
• Currently working on elucidation of MHC gene loci diversity among indicus and crossbred cattle to identify genetic basis of differential immune response among these subspecies and understanding molecular basis of white markings in Nili Ravi buffalo.
• Was part of the team accomplishing registration of Ladakhi cattle, Chhattisgarhi, Gojri, Manda and Dharwadi buffalo breeds.
• Whole genome methylome studies of skin tissues has helped in identification of potential epigenetic markers associated with white and black skin pigmentation in Nili Ravi buffalo.
• One US Patent: Satish Kumar, Manish V. Bais, Ranjit Singh Kataria and Mahendra Pal Yadav: Artificially Synthesized Peptide. Patent No. US 8,216,843 B2 dated- July, 10, 2012.

• Fellow Society for Conservation of Domestic Animal Biodiversity.
• Institute’s best student award for securing highest OGPA in Ph.D. at IVRI, Izatnagar (1996-1999).
• P.R. Nilakantan award for the best paper published in Indian Veterinary Journal for the year 2000.
• Recipient of First Dr. P.G. Nair Award (2012) for outstanding scientific contributions at NBAGR.
• KN Sharma memorial award for best publication in Journal of Livestock Biodiversity-2018.
• Dr Pushkar Nath Bhat best paper award (2021) for the research paper ‘Diversity analysis at MHC class II DQA locus in buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) indicates extensive duplication and trans-species evolution’ Genomics 112: 4417–4426, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ygeno.2020.07.041’ by Shailendra Kumar Mishra, Saket Kumar Niranjan, Ravinder Singh, Prem Kumar, S. Lava Kumar, Bhaswati Banerjee and Ranjit Singh Kataria (2020), presented during Indian Society of Animal Genetics & Breeding annual symposium held during December 17-18, 2021 at NBAGR, Karnal.

1. Kataria RS, Tiwari AK, Butchaiah G, Kataria JM and. Skinner MA (2001). Sequence analysis of the VP2 gene hypervariable region of infectious bursal disease viruses from India. Avian Pathology30: 501-507.
2. James E. Koltes, Bishnu P. Mishra, Dinesh Kumar, Kataria RS, Liviu R. Totir, Rohan L. Fernando, Rowland Cobbold, David Steffen, WouterCoppieters, Michel Georges, and James M. Reecy (2009). A nonsense mutation in cGMP-dependant, type II, protein kinase (PRKG2) causes dwarfism in American Angus cattle. Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences, USA106 (46): 19250-19255.
3. Harry D Dawson, Jane E Loveland, Géraldine Pascal, James GR Gilbert, HirohideUenishi, Katherine M Mann, Yongming Sang, Jie Zhang, Denise Carvalho-Silva, t Hunt, Matthew Hardy, Zhi-Liang Hu, Shuhong Zhao, Anna Anselmo, Hiroki Shinkai, Celine Chen, BouabidBadaoui, Daniel Berman, Clara Amid, Mike Kay, David Lloyd, Catherine Snow, Takeya Morozumi, Ryan Pei-Yen Cheng, Megan Bystrom, Ronan Kapetanovic, John C Schwartz, Ranjit Kataria, et al. (2013). Structural and Functional Annotation of the Porcine Immunome: BMC Genomics: 14(1):332. DOI:10.1186/1471-2164-14-332.
4. Dhanasekaran S, Biswas M, Vignesh AR, Ramya R, Raj GD, Tirumurugaan KG, Raja A, Kataria RS, Parida S, Subbiah E. (2014). Toll-Like Receptor Responses to Peste des petits ruminants Virus in Goats and Water Buffalo. PLoSONE9(11): e111609. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0111609.
5. Mishra BP, Dubey PK, Prakash B, Kathiravan P, Goyal S,. Sadana DK, Das GC, Goswami RN, Bhasin V, Joshi BK and Kataria RS(2015). Genetic analysis of river, swamp and hybrid buffaloes of North East India throw light on phylogeography of water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis). Journal of Animal Breeding and Genetics 132: 454-466, doi:10.1111/jbg.12141.
6. Mishra SK, Niranjan SK, Banerjee B, Dubey PK, Gonge DS, Mishra BP and Kataria RS(2016). High genetic diversity and distribution of Bubu-DQA alleles in swamp buffaloes (Bubalus bubalis carabanesis): Identification of new Bubu-DQA loci and haplotypes. Immunogenetics 68: 439-447. doi:10.1007/s00251-016-0915-0.
7. Preeti Verma, Ankita Sharma, Monika Sodhi, Kiran Thakur, Ranjit S. Kataria, Saket K. Niranjan, Vijay  K. Bharti, Prabhat Kumar, Arup Giri, Sahil Kalia and Manishi Mukesh (2018). Transcriptome Analysis of Circulating PBMCs to Understand Mechanism of High Altitude Adaptation in Native Cattle of Ladakh Region. Scientific Reports8:7681. DOI:10.1038/s41598-018-25736-7
8. Ravinder Singh, S. Lava Kumar, SK Mishra, Ankita Gurao, SK Niranjan, Vikas Vohra, SK Dash, C Rajesh and RS Kataria (2020). Mitochondrial sequence based evolutionary analysis of riverine-swamp hybrid buffaloes of India indicates novel maternal differentiation and domestication patterns. Animal Genetics, DOI:10.1111/age.12938.
9. Shailendra Kumar Mishra, Saket Kumar Niranjan, Ravinder Singh, Prem Kumar, S. Lava Kumar, Bhaswati Banerjee and Ranjit Singh Kataria (2020). Diversity analysis at MHC class II DQA locus in buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) indicates extensive duplication and trans-species evolution. Genomics112: 4417–4426, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ygeno.2020.07.041.
10. Ravinder Singh, SK Mishra, Ankitaurao, SK Niranjan, Vikas Vohra, SK Dash, M Mukesh, C Rajesh and RS Kataria (2021). Current status and unique attributes of Indian Chilika buffalo for adaptation to brackish water ecology. Tropical Animal Health and Production53:544.https://doi.org/10.1007/s11250-021-02973-z