Mohammad Akbari

Mohammad Akbari (born May 04, 1985) is an Iranian plant breeder and agriculture scientist https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=b5Tts3kAAAAJ&hl=en. He is the first Iranian plant breeder, has ever introduced a plant species (a pistachio rootstock named Arota) in American Society for horticultural sciences (ASHS) form Iran Akbari, M.; Hokmabadi, H.; Heydari, M.; Ghorbani, A. (May 2020). ‘Arota’: A New Interspecific Hybrid Pistachio Rootstock. HortScience. 55 (6): p 965. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21273/HORTSCI14845-20. 
Mohammad introduced Arota, in 2020. Arota is the main output of his breeding programs cooperating with NBG company in Iran; which is a new Persian interspecific hybrid (Pistacia integerrima ♂ * Pistacia atlantica ♀) pistachio rootstock selected from a progeny of 222 controlled crosses made in 2013 and 2014 Akbari, M.; Hokmabadi, H.; Heydari, M.; Ghorbani, A. (May 2020). ‘Arota’: A New Interspecific Hybrid Pistachio Rootstock. HortScience. 55 (6): p 966. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21273/HORTSCI14845-20.. Arota is the first Iranian pistachio rootstock has ever been introduced and is the second hybrid pistachio rootstock introduced in the world after UCB1 Sheikhi, A.; Arab, M. M.; Brown, P. J.; Ferguson, L.; Akbari, M. (2019). Pistachio (Pistacia spp.) breeding. In Advances in plant breeding strategies: Nut and beverage crops. Springer, Cham. pp. 353-400. ISBN: 978-3-030-23112-5.. 
==Education==
Mohammad holds a PhD on "Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology of horticultural crops" from University of Tabriz collaborating with Florida A&M University (FAMU) and Florida State University (FSU). He has been working on pistachio genotypes since 2009 and has done research on pistachio male and female genotypes Aliakbarkhani, S. T.; Akbari, M.; Hassankhah, A.; Talaie, A.; Moghadam, M. F. (2015). Phenotypic and genotypic variation in Iranian Pistachios. Journal of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, 13(2), 235-241. DOI: 10.1016/j.jgeb.2015.05.003.Aliakbarkhani, S. T.; Farajpour, M.; Asadian, A. H.; Aalifar, M.; Ahmadi, S.; Akbari, M. (2017). Variation of nutrients and antioxidant activity in seed and exocarp layer of some Persian pistachio genotypes. Annals of Agricultural Sciences, 62(1), 39-44. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aoas.2017.01.003.. His breeding programs on pistachio, started on 2013 focusing on producing pistachio rootstocks able to tolerate acceptable amount of salinity and drought stress. During his PhD theses, he investigated the mechanisms behind salinity tolerance in pistachio rootstocks and published his findings in Protoplasma and Biomolecules journals. Akbari, M.; Mahna, N.; Ramesh, K.; Bandehagh, A.; Mazzuca, S. (2018). Ion homeostasis, osmoregulation, and physiological changes in the roots and leaves of pistachio rootstocks in response to salinity. Protoplasma, 255(5), 1349-1362. DOI: 10.1007/s00709-018-1235-z.7.	Akbari, M.; Katam, R.; Husain, R.; Farajpour, M.; Mazzuca, S.; Mahna, N. (2020). Sodium chloride induced stress responses of antioxidative activities in leaves and roots of pistachio rootstock. Biomolecules, 10(2), 189. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/biom10020189.
==Career==
Mohammad started his career as an advisor to deputy minister of agriculture in the horticulture sector in 2018. He supervised Pistachio Group at Ministry of Agriculture for two years and monitored pistachio cultivation in Iran. During his work at Ministry of Agriculture he promoted pistachio cultivation in 10 new provinces in Iranhttps://www.jamaran.news/fa/tiny/news-1140823. Pistachio Cultivation is Promoted in 10 Northern Provinces of Iran. Irna News Agency. March 14, 2019.. His area of research is focused on pistachio rootstock and scion breeding.
==Honours, decorations, awards and distinctions==
# 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, Talented Student, by University of Tabriz.
# 2017, superb mentor, by University of Florida A&M.
# 2018, 2019, Eminent pistachio expert, Iran's Ministry of Agriculture.
Category:Plant breeding
Category:Iranian scientists