Research Groups
Plant Biology: Plant Molecular Biology
Research Interests and Description
Staff Research Scientist: Neeti Sanan-Mishra
Group Leader: Sudhir Kumar Sopory
Research Interests
Abiotic and Biotic stress, gene expression, regulation, miRNA, crop improvement.
Description of Research
The Group is involved in
understanding the mechanisms of
growth and development in higher plants for improving plant adaptation towards abiotic and biotic
stresses. The stress responses in plants are multigenic in nature. Research
activities have thus been focused on the unravelling of the regulatory pathways
and the intricacies therein. Toward this end a stress upregulated protein
involved in translation and transcriptional control, was functionally
characterized. Recently, work has been initiated to follow the miRNA networks
involved in regulating the plant development in normal and stressed
environments in endogenous (indica) rice varieties. miRNAs have been recognised
as important regulatory factors in organism development and disease expression.
We have adopted a two-pronged strategy of using bioinfomatic predictions along
with the traditional molecular biology and biochemical approaches to understand the miRNA regulatory
networks operative during development and stress.
We have deep sequenced the small RNAs
in response to salt stress, viral infection and developmental cues from
different local rice varieties and have identified a few novel rice miRNAs.
This information will be used to tap the natural variation existent in the Indian
rice cultivars and generate a small RNA database for rice in the Indian context.
Work has been initiated to analyze the spatial and temporal accumulation of miRNAs to
understand the fine- tuning of target gene expression in plant development. This will be useful to gain fundamental knowledge of plant responses to the environment leading to a range of applications in crop
improvement.
Recent Publications
Sanan-Mishra, N., Kumar, V., Sopory, S.K., Mukherjee S.K. 2009. Cloning and Validation of novel miRNA from basmati rice indicates cross-talk between abiotic and biotic stresses. Mol. Gen. Genomics In press
Sanan Mishra, N., Karjee, S., Mukherjee, S.K. 2009. Design and Delivery of small RNAs for RNAi technology. In: Biotechnology, ed. Anil Kumar, G.B. Pant University In press
Teotia, P.S., Mukherjee, S.K., Sanan-Mishra, N. 2008. Fine tuning of Auxin signaling by miRNAs. Physiol. Mol. Biol. Plant. 14, 81-90
Sanan-Mishra, N., Mukherjee, S.K. 2007. A peep into the plant miRNA world. The Open Plant J. 1, 1-9
Sanan-Mishra, N.,Tuteja, R., Tuteja, N. 2006. Signaling through MAP kinase networks in plants. Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 452, 55-68
