Browsing by Author "Sharma, Raghvendra"

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Emerging roles of auxin in abiotic stress responses
(Springer, 2015) Sharma, Eshan; Sharma, Raghvendra; Borah, Pratikshya; Jain, Mukesh; Khurana, Jitendra P.
Auxin is among the key growth regulators that play diverse roles in virtually all aspects of plant growth and development. Intensive investigations during the past two decades have helped in elucidation of auxin perception and signal transduction mechanisms operative in plants. In addition to its primary role in regulating plant development, several studies in recent years have provided unflinching evidence for the involvement of auxin in abiotic stress responses. Functional genomics studies and genome-wide expression analysis have revealed altered expression of auxin-responsive genes, such as Aux/IAA, GH3, SAURs, and ARFs, under abiotic stress conditions. Variations in endogenous levels of auxin at global and local levels under various abiotic stress conditions have been associated with phenotypic changes and provided intriguing evidences regarding its role in response to environmental changes. Modulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels in response to exogenous auxin as well as to drought, salinity, and ABA have indicated towards a complex relationship network between auxin, ROS, and abiotic stresses in plants. The advent of recent functional genomics technologies has led to identification of several candidate genes that may modulate crosstalk between auxin and abiotic stresses. This chapter discusses auxin homeostasis, signal transduction mechanisms, and how these processes are modulated under abiotic stresses, thus emphasizing on the emerging roles of auxin as a key integrator of abiotic stress pathways and plant development.
Modified expression of an auxin-responsive rice CC-type glutaredoxin gene affects multiple abiotic stress responses
(Springer, 2013) Sharma, Raghvendra; Priya, Pushp; Jain, Mukesh
Glutaredoxins (GRXs) are the ubiquitous oxidoreductase enzymes, which play an important role in defense against various stresses. Here, we report the role of a CC-type GRX gene from rice, OsGRX8, in abiotic stress tolerance. OsGRX8 protein was found to be localized in nucleus and cytosol and its gene expression is induced by various stress conditions and plant hormone auxin. The over-expression of OsGRX8 in Arabidopsis plants conferred reduced sensitivity to auxin and stress hormone, abscisic acid. In addition, the transgenic Arabidopsis plants exhibited enhanced tolerance to various abiotic stresses, including salinity, osmotic and oxidative stress. Further, the transgenic RNAi rice plants exhibited increased susceptibility to various abiotic stresses, which further confirmed the role of OsGRX8 in abiotic stress responses. The microarray data analysis revealed that expression of a large number of auxin-responsive, known stress-associated and transcription factor encoding genes was altered in GRX transgenic Arabidopsis plants in response to exogenous auxin and stress conditions as compared to wild-type plants. Altogether, these findings suggest the role of OsGRX8 in regulating abiotic stress response and may be used to engineer stress tolerance in crop plants.
Over-expression of a rice tau class glutathione S-transferase gene improves tolerance to salinity and oxidative stresses in Arabidopsis
(PLOS, 2014) Sharma, Raghvendra; Sahoo, Annapurna; Devendran, Ragunathan; Jain, Mukesh
Glutathione S-transferases (GSTs) are multifunctional proteins encoded by large gene family in plants, which play important role in cellular detoxification of several endobiotic and xenobiotic compounds. Previously, we suggested the diverse roles of rice GST gene family members in plant development and various stress responses based on their differential expression. In this study, we report the functional characterization of a rice tau class GST gene, OsGSTU4. OsGSTU4 fusion protein was found to be localized in nucleus and cytoplasm. The over-expression of OsGSTU4 in E. coli resulted in better growth and higher GST activity under various stress conditions. Further, we raised over-expression transgenic Arabidopsis plants to reveal its in planta function. These transgenic lines showed reduced sensitivity towards plant hormones, auxin and abscisic acid. Various analyses revealed improved tolerance in transgenic Arabidopsis plants towards salinity and oxidative stresses, which may be attributed to the lower accumulation of reactive oxygen species and enhanced GST activity. In addition, microarray analysis revealed up-regulation of several genes involved in stress responses and cellular detoxification processes in the transgenic plants as compared to wild-type. These results suggest that OsGSTU4 can be used as a good candidate for the generation of stress-tolerant crop plants.
Over-expression of OsHOX24 confers enhanced susceptibility to abiotic stresses in transgenic rice via modulating stress-responsive gene expression
(Frontiers Media S.A., 2017) Bhattacharjee, Annapurna; Sharma, Raghvendra; Jain, Mukesh
Homeobox transcription factors play critical roles in plant development and abiotic stress responses. In the present study, we raised rice transgenics over-expressing stress-responsive OsHOX24 gene (rice homeodomain-leucine zipper I sub-family member) and analyzed their response to various abiotic stresses at different stages of development. At the seed germination stage, rice transgenics over-expressing OsHOX24 exhibited enhanced sensitivity to abiotic stress conditions and abscisic acid as compared to wild-type (WT). OsHOX24 over-expression rice seedlings showed reduced root and shoot growth under salinity and desiccation stress (DS) conditions. Various physiological and phenotypic assays confirmed higher susceptibility of rice transgenics toward abiotic stresses as compared to WT at mature and reproductive stages of rice development too. Global gene expression profiling revealed differential regulation of several genes in the transgenic plants under control and DS conditions. Many of these differentially expressed genes were found to be involved in transcriptional regulatory activities, besides carbohydrate, nucleic acid and lipid metabolic processes and response to abiotic stress and hormones. Taken together, our findings highlighted the role of OsHOX24 in regulation of abiotic stress responses via modulating the expression of stress-responsive genes in rice.
Transcriptome analysis of Catharanthus roseus for gene discovery and expression profiling
(PLOS, 2014) Verma, Mohit; Ghangal, Rajesh; Sharma, Raghvendra; Sinha, Alok Krishna; Jain, Mukesh
The medicinal plant, Catharanthus roseus, accumulates wide range of terpenoid indole alkaloids, which are well documented therapeutic agents. In this study, deep transcriptome sequencing of C. roseus was carried out to identify the pathways and enzymes (genes) involved in biosynthesis of these compounds. About 343 million reads were generated from different tissues (leaf, flower and root) of C. roseus using Illumina platform. Optimization of de novo assembly involving a two-step process resulted in a total of 59,220 unique transcripts with an average length of 1284 bp. Comprehensive functional annotation and gene ontology (GO) analysis revealed the representation of many genes involved in different biological processes and molecular functions. In total, 65% of C. roseus transcripts showed homology with sequences available in various public repositories, while remaining 35% unigenes may be considered as C. roseus specific. In silico analysis revealed presence of 11,620 genic simple sequence repeats (excluding mono-nucleotide repeats) and 1820 transcription factor encoding genes in C. roseus transcriptome. Expression analysis showed roots and leaves to be actively participating in bisindole alkaloid production with clear indication that enzymes involved in pathway of vindoline and vinblastine biosynthesis are restricted to aerial tissues. Such large-scale transcriptome study provides a rich source for understanding plant-specialized metabolism, and is expected to promote research towards production of plant-derived pharmaceuticals.