I write about

"Share knowledge. Its one way to immortality" - Dalai Lama.

Hi! My name is Avinash Karn, I go by Avi. I am very passionate about Agriculture and cutting-edge technologies. I have in-depth knowledge and a rigorous hands on experience in the field of plant breeding, quantitative genetics, computational biology and high-throughput phenotyping for over 10 years now, which I earned during my research work with plant breeders/geneticists, bioinformaticists, pathologist in my undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral career in the United States.

Professional & Academic career:

Cornell University, New York, USA - 2018-2020 - Computational Biologist (PostDoc)
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Illinois , USA - 2017 - Maize geneticist (Postdoc)
University of Missouri Columbia, Missouri, USA - 2012–2017 - PhD Maize Breeding, Genetics & Genomics
Truman State University, Missouri, USA - 2008–2012 - BSc AgSc Plant breeding & Genetics

Professional Expertise: Plant Breeding, Quantitative Genetics, Genomics & Computational Biology

Skills:

Plant Breeding: Quantitative Genetics, Genomics, Simulations, Optimization, Population development, Experimental design, Walking Plots/Notes taking, Pollination & Harvesting.
Programming: R, Python, SQL
Software: Haploview, TASSEL, MapChart, LepMap, PLINK, PRISM
Machine Learning: Regression, Classification, Clustering and Time Series
Database Systems: GitHub
Scripting Languages: PowerShell, Linux, PERL
Reporting Tool: Spotfire, Tableau
Laboratory: DNA extraction, DNA library preparation, marker design, PCR, Gel Electrophoresis

Language Skills: Fluent in English, Nepali, Hindi, Maithali, Bhojpuri, and basic Spanish

Hobbies: Astronomy, Painting (watercolor), Cooking (American, Nepalese, Indian, Spanish), Stamp Collecting, Robotics, Bird watching, Fish keeping, Gardening

Selected Research Publications

The Genetic Basis of Anthocyanin Acylation in North American Grapes (Vitis spp.). Avinash Karn, Luis Diaz-Garcia, Noam Reshef, Cheng Zou, David C. Manns, Lance Cadle-Davidson, Anna Katharine Mansfield, Bruce I. Reisch, and Gavin L. Sacks. Genes 12, no. 12 (2021): 1962.

Discovery of the REN11 locus from Vitis aestivalis for stable resistance to grapevine powdery mildew in a family segregating for several unstable and tissue-specific quantitative resistance loci Avinash Karn, Cheng Zou, Siraprapa Brooks, Jonathan Fresnedo Ramirez, Franka Gabler, Qi Sun, David Ramming, Rachel Naegele, Craig Ledbetter and Lance Cadle-Davidson. Frontiers in Plant Sciences - Plant breeding

Multiple independent recombinations led to hermaphroditism in grapevine Cheng Zou, Mélanie Massonnet, Andrea Minio, Sagar Patel, Victor Llaca, Avinash Karn, Fred Gouker, Lance Cadle-Davidson, Bruce Reisch, Anne Fennell, Dario Cantu, Qi Sun, Jason P. Londo (2021) Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

A rhAmpSeq haplotype strategy targeting the collinear core genome improves marker transferability across a diverse genus Cheng Zou*,Avinash Karn*, Bruce Reisch, Allen Nguyen, Yongming Sun, Yun Bao, Michael S. Campbell, Deanna Church, Stephen Williams, Timothy P. L. Smith, Anne Fennell, Doreen Ware, Jason Londo, Qi Sun and Lance Cadle-Davidson (2020) Nature Communications

Stable QTL for malate levels in ripe fruit and their transferability across Vitis species Noam Reshef, Avinash Karn, David C Manns, Anna Katharine Mansfield, Lance Cadle-Davidson, Bruce Reisch, Gavin L Sacks(2022) Horticulture Research

Fine mapping of leaf trichome density revealed a 747-kb region on chromosome 1 in cold-hardy hybrid wine grape populations Lu Yin, Avinash Karn, Lance Cadle-Davidson, Cheng Zou, Anna Underhill, Paul Atkins, Erin Treiber, Daniel Voytas, Matthew Clark (2019) Frontiers in Plant Sciences - Plant breeding

Computational analysis of AmpSeq data for targeted, high-throughput genotyping of amplicons Jonathan Fresnedo-Ramírez , Shanshan Yang , Qi Sun, Avinash Karn , Bruce I. Reisch, Lance Cadle-Davidson (2019) Frontiers in Plant Sciences

Genome Wide Association Study (GWAS) on Disease Resistance in Maize. Shrestha, Vivek, Mani Awale, and Avinash Karn. Springer, Cham, 2019 In Disease Resistance in Crop Plants

Genetic Analysis of Teosinte Alleles for Kernel Composition Traits in Maize Karn, Avinash, Gillman, J. D., & Flint-Garcia, S. A. (2017) G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics

Development of Rigorous Fatty Acid Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Quantitation Methods in Support of Soybean Oil Improvement. Karn, Avinash, Heim, C., Flint-Garcia, S., Bilyeu, K., & Gillman, J. (2016) Journal of the American Oil Chemists

Breeding Specialty Starch Maize Using Exotic Genetic Resources for Gene Discovery of Novel Alleles and Modifiers with Materials Generated from the USDA-ARS GEM Project (2011) Karn, Avinash, Brent Buckner, Diane Janick-Buckner, Mark Campbell, Michael Blanco, Marvin Scott, and Adrienne Moran Lauter. Maize Genetics Conference Abstracts

Contact

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