Elena K Khlestkina

ACADEMIC DEGREES 2002 Candidate of biological sciences (=PhD) 2011 Doctor of biological sciences (DSc) 2016 Professor of the Russian Academy of Sciences AWARDS AND DIPLOMA 2012 – 1st prize winner among young scientists (by the Government of the Novosibirsk region) 2010 – L’OREAL–UNESCO fellow (for young women in science) 2007 – Prize and Medal «The phenomenon of life» after V.I. Korogodin in Genetics 2005 – INTAS fellow 2003 – Prize and Medal of the Russian Academy of Sciences MEMBERSHIP IN SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES AND EXPERT COMMITTEES The head of the Novosibirsk Division of the Russian Society of Genetisists and Breeders A member of the Federal roster of experts in scientific and technical sphere of the Russian Federation. EUCARPIA (European Association for Research on Plant Breeding) member. MEMBERSHIP IN EDITORIAL BOARDS AND ASSOCIATIONS Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the VAVILOV JOURNAL OF GENETICS AND BREEDING A member of the Editorial board of the HEREDITAS journal A member of the Association of Science Editors and Publishers (ASEP). KEY WORDS genetics, transcriptomics, molecular genetics, genes functions, plant genes, cereal plants, barley, wheat, molecular-genetic bases of plant breeding MAIN RESEARCH RESULTS (2016-2020) Over the past five years, the studies in the field of genetics, biotechnology and plant breeding resulted in: (1) identification and mapping more than 50 genes and loci of quantitative traits (QTL) associated with the growth and development of wheat, barley and potato plants, resistance to various types of biotic and abiotic stress, and dietary value; (2) some of the genes mapped were also cloned and sequenced for the first time; (3) the efficiency of creating cereals with high dietary value using marker-assisted selection was shown; (4) an optimized protocol to achieve high efficacy of CRISPR / Cas-directed barley mutagenesis was developed; the possibility of modifying the genome of a non-model barley variety was shown for the first time. The results obtained are an essential base for the future practical application of approaches for the accelerated creation of plant varieties based on genomic editing to obtain products with the required properties. Selected papers: 1.Melanin formation in barley grain occurs within plastids of pericarp and husk cells. Sci.Rep.2020. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-56982-y 2.Conversion of hulled into naked barley by Cas endonuclease-mediated knockout of the NUD gene. BMC Plant Biol.2020. doi: 10.1186/s12870-020-02454-9 3. SNPs associated with barley resistance to novel isolates of Pyrenophora teres f. teres. BMC Genomics. 2019. doi: 10.1186/s12864-019-5623-3 4. Yield and quality in purple grain wheat isogenic lines. Agronomy (MDPI). 2020. doi: 10.3390/agronomy10010086 5. Organization and evolution of the chalcone synthase gene family in bread wheat and relative species. BMC Genet. 2019. doi: 10.1186/s12863-019-0727-y 6. Starch phosphorylation associated SNPs found by genome-wide association studies in potato (Solanum tuberosum L.). BMC Genet. 2019. doi: 10.1186/s12863-019-0729-9 7. Radiosensitivity and mutability of wheat seed progeny cultivated under adverse environments. Plant Physiology and Biochemistry. 2019. doi: 10.1016/j.plaphy.2019.02.011 8. Myc-like transcriptional factors in wheat: Structural and functional organization of the subfamily I members BMC Plant Biol. 2019. doi: 10.1186/s12870-019-1639-8 9. Duplicated flavonoid 3'-hydroxylase and flavonoid 3', 5'-hydroxylase genes in barley genome. PeerJ.2019. doi: 10.7717/peerj.6266 10. Targeted genome modification in protoplasts of a highly regenerable Siberian barley cultivar using RNA-guided Cas9 endonuclease. Vavilov J Genet Breed. 2018. doi: 10.18699/VJ18.447 11. Anthocyanins participate in the protection of wheat seedlings against cadmium stress. Cereal Res Commun. 2018. doi: 10.1556/0806.45.2017.070 12. Differential expression of NBS-LRR-encoding genes in the root transcriptomes of two Solanum phureja genotypes with contrasting resistance to Globodera rostochiensis BMC Plant Biology. 2017. doi: 10.1186/s12870-017-1193-1 13. Identification and characterization of regulatory network components for anthocyanin synthesis in barley aleurone. BMC Plant Biology. 2017. doi: 10.1186/s12870-017-1122-3 14. Regulation of the Flavonoid Biosynthesis Pathway Genes in Purple and Black Grains of Hordeum vulgare. PLoS ONE 2016. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0163782 15. Identification of nuclear genes controlling chlorophyll synthesis in barley by RNA-seq. BMC Plant Biol. 2016. doi: 10.1186/s12870-016-0926-x