Biotechnological Applications in Buffalo Research

Dr. Manmohan Singh Chauhan is presently a Director and Vice-chancellor of the ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI), Karnal, India. Previously, he was the Director of ICAR-Central Institute for Research on Goats (CIRG), Makhdum, India. His research group mainly focuses on reproductive techniques such as in-vitro fertilization (IVF) of embryos, ovum-pick up (OPU), embryonic stem cells, animal cloning, and transgenesis in livestock, buffalo, goats, cattle, and yaks. He has published around 150 peer-reviewed research articles and authored 5 books. Dr. Chauhan is a distinguished fellow of India’s National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS) and the National Academy of Dairy Sciences (NADS). He has received several research awards and recognition which includes Rafi Ahmed Kidwai and research team award from the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Labhaswetar award from Indian Society for the Study of Reproduction & Fertility, certificate of appreciation fromHon’ble Minister of Agriculture, Govt. of India for achieving success in buffalo cloning in India. Dr. Naresh L. Selokar is presently working as a scientist at the ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI), Karnal, India. Previously, he was a scientist at the ICAR-Central Institute for Research on Buffaloes (CIRB), Hisar, India. He has contributed significantly to establish a simplified, economical, and efficient buffalo cloning technique called handmade cloning, which is being used to produce cloned and transgenic/edited buffaloes in India. He has been instrumental in establishing a somatic cell biobank of elite buffaloes. In addition to buffalo cloning, he has worked on other assisted reproductive techniques such as in-vitro embryo production (IVF), embryonic, adult, and induced pluripotent stem cells, cryopreservation of somatic cells, oocytes and embryos, artificial insemination, and embryo transfer. His current research interests are focused on CRISPR-based genome editing in buffalo. Dr. Selokar has authored more than 50 research articles in peer-reviewed journals.  He has received several awards, including the Associate fellowship-2020 (National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, India), Young Scientist Platinum Jubilee Awards-2019 (The National Academy of Sciences, India), Innovative Young Biotechnologist Award-2018 (Department of Biotechnology, India), Young Scientist Award-2015 (Science and Engineering Research Board, India), Jawaharlal Nehru award for outstanding doctoral thesis research in agricultural and allied sciences-2015 (Indian Council of Agricultural Research).

Chapter 1. Buffalo in the World: Situation and Perspectives.- Chapter 2. Water buffalo genomic diversity.- Chapter 3. Advances in Buffalo Breeding: A Journey from classical Breeding to Genomic Selection.- Chapter 4. Reproductive Management of Dairy Buffaloes.- Chapter 5. Behavior and welfare of dairy buffaloes: calving, weaning and milking.- Chapter 6. Buffalo’s milk and its products: Composition, Nutrition, and Benefits.- Chapter 7. Welfare of buffaloes at slaughter.- Section-II Omics approaches to understand buffalo’s genome, physiology, and reproduction.- Chapter 8. Molecular evolution and genome architecture of water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis), the ‘living bank’ for marginal farmers in developing countries.- Chapter 9. Fertility biomarkers in buffalo.- Chapter 10. Being Sweet is Being Smart: Lessons Learnt from Buffalo Spermatozoa.- Chapter 11. Protein signatures of lactation and early pregnancy diagnosis in buffalo (Bubalus bubalis).- Chapter 12. Induced pluripotent stem cells in buffalo: Basics to translation applications.- Chapter 13. Domesticated buffalo- A model for human biomedical research.- Section-III Reproductive Biotechnologies.- Chapter 14. Advances in embryo production in buffaloes: in vivo versus in vitro procedures.- Chapter 15. Application of Fixed-Time Artificial Insemination in Water Buffaloes.- Chapter 16. Semen sexing in buffalo.- Chapter 17. Advances in cryopreservation of buffalo semen.- Chapter 18. Advances in Semen Quality Assessments in AI Programs in Buffalo.- Chapter 19. Reproductive ultrasonography in buffalo – Basic concepts and recent advances.- Chapter 20. Spermatogonial stem cells and testis-tissue cryopreservation as a tool for conservation of buffalo germplasm.- Chapter 21. Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer and its Applications in Buffalo (Bubalus bubalis).