ABSTRACT
Upon retirement as Emeritus Professor at the Jammu & Kashmir University, Janaki accepted A. R. Gopal-Ayengar’s invitation to join the Biology Unit of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Trombay, in the capacity of adviser; she would remain there a little over a year, until late October 1970. She was somewhat diffident because the trend in biological research was orientated towards biochemistry/molecular biology at this time. Janaki was however attracted to Trombay because it offered facilities for the study of her Saccharum-Zea hybrid and also the Solanum khasianum material she had brought with her from Jammu. With the Solanum she was lucky; in collaboration with Bharati Bhatt, a woman biologist from BARC, she produced tetraploids and ‘some interesting mutants’ by subjecting the material to gamma rays and colchicine. This was the first time tetraploidy had been successfully induced in Solanum khasianum by anyone anywhere in the world.
