Research Groups

Plant Biology: Plant Molecular Biology

Research Interests and Description

Staff Research Scientist: Suresh Nair

Research Interests

Abiotic and Biotic stress, gene expression, crop improvement.

Description of Research

The Group’s major interest is understanding insect-plant interaction. The Asian rice gall midge (Orseolia oryzae; Order Diptera, Family Cecidomyiidae) is an important insect pest of rice and is responsible for causing considerable yield and monetary loss to farmers in India, Africa, South East Asia and neighbouring countries. Another reason that gall midge is such a serious pest is that there exist many biotypes therefore rendering many resistance genes in rice ineffective after deployment. In most cases, resistance is governed by a single, dominant gene and, using PCR-based techniques, we have mapped and tagged gall midge resistance genes Gm2, Gm4, Gm7 and Gm8. A PCR-based marker aided selection (MAS) system for these genes was first developed in our lab.
Current interests are in the area of rice insect-pest interaction. In the case of rice gall midge, it is known that, in all probability, initial interaction between this and the host determines whether the host would succumb to the midge or is able to resist it. During the infestation process and subsequent feeding on the host the larvae inject substance(s) into the host. Therefore, as in the case of the pathogenic bacteria and fungi, these products could be determinants of the avirulence/virulence phenomenon. Extending this idea further, the genes that encode these molecules could be determinants for the gall midge biotypes. Further, the genes that encode such molecules could be those that encode secreted salivary gland proteins (SSGPs), which in turn could be determinants of gall midge virulence/avirulence. Characterizing genes that encode SSGPs will give us a handle on which to study this interaction and also gain valuable insight into the process of infestation of rice by this pest.
The Group has been involved in characterising and studying plant gene expression and analysing the important roles these play in the cellular activities of the plants, especially when plants are subject to abiotic stress. In collaboration, we have devised new methods for preparing cDNA libraries and subtracted cDNA libraries for identifying genes that are over-expressed or silenced during exposure to various kinds of abiotic and biotic stresses, and thereby aiding gene discovery.

Recent Publications

Reddy, R.A., Kumar, B., Reddy, P.S., Mishra, R.N., Mahanty, S., Kaul, T.,Nair, S., Sopory, S.K., Reddy, M.K. 2009. Molecular cloning and characterization of genes encoding Pennisetum glaucum ascorbate peroxidise and heat-shock factor: Interlinking oxidative and heat-stress responses. J. Plant Physiol. In Press

Reddy, P.S., Mahanty, S., Kaul, T., Nair, S., Sopory, S.K., Reddy, M.K. 2008. A high-throughput genome-walking method and its use for cloning unknown flanking sequences. Anal. Biochem. 381, 248-253

Reddy, P.S., Nair, S., Mallikarjuna, G., Kaul, T., Markandeya, G., Sopory, S.K., Reddy, M.K. 2008. A high-throughput, low-cost method for the preparation of ‘sequencing-ready’ phage DNA template. Anal. Biochem. 376, 258-261

Mishra, R.N., Reddy, P.S., Nair, S., Markandeya, G., Reddy, A.R., Sopory, S.K., Reddy, M.K. 2007. Isolation and characterization of expressed sequence tags (ESTs) from subtracted cDNA libraries of Pennisetum glaucum seedlings. Plant Mol. Biol. 64, 713-732

Agarwal, P., Agarwal, P.K., Nair, S., Sopory, S.K., Reddy, M.K. 2007. Stress-inducible DREB2A transcription factor from Pennisetum glaucum is a phosphoprotein and its phosphorylation negatively regulates its DNA-binding activity. Mol. Genet. Genomics 277, 189-198