Profile

Dr. Rehenuma Tabassum received undergraduate and graduate education at Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University and Sylhet Agricultural University, respectively, where fundamental and advanced courses for Crop Science, for example, from Biochemistry, Genetics to Seed Biology and Crop Research Methodology were learned. Later, she earned her PhD from Kyoto University, Japan, in May 2020 under the prestigious Japanese Government (Monbukagakusho: MEXT) Scholarship. Her doctoral research focused on understanding the molecular mechanism and adaptive technology of white immature grains, particularly investigating plastid-type heat stress proteins in the conditional chalky grain mutant 'flo11-2'. She successfully cloned and characterized the cpHsp70-2 gene from the mutant and found that lowered function of the cpHsp70-2 protein is involved with the chalkiness of the mutant. Her study also examined how environmental and physiological factors influence chalkiness, especially under elevated temperature at different growth conditions. Dr. Tabassum’s research work has appeared in several top-tier journals (The Plant Journal, Plant Production Science, etc.) and international conference proceedings. Currently, she is a JSPS Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Crop Science Lab, The University of Tokyo, Japan, where she is investigating the molecular factors that determine the size and shape of starch granules in rice endosperm. In addition to her research, Dr. Tabassum actively contributes to the scientific community. She serves as an academic editor for BMC Plant Biology and the Asian Journal of Advances in Agricultural Research. She is also a reviewer for several high-impact journals, including the Journal of Agriculture and Food Research, Scientia Horticulturae, Cogent Food & Agriculture, Heliyon, International Journal of Plant Biology, Asian Journal of Advances in Agricultural Research, etc. These roles allow her to stay at the forefront of advancements in plant science and agricultural research.