Browsing by Author "Soundararajan, Prabhakaran"

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Editorial: Silicon: A “Quasi-Essential” element’s role in plant physiology and development
(Frontiers Media S.A., 2023) Manivannan, Abinaya; Soundararajan, Prabhakaran; Jeong, Byoung Ryong
Silicon (Si) is the second most abundant element present in the Earth’s crust after oxygen, i.e., 28.8% in dry weight basis. Plants absorb Si in the form of orthosilicic acid [Si(OH)4]. Supplementation of Si has showed various beneficial effects on plants such as improved growth, yield, and tolerance against abiotic and biotic stress conditions. Owing to its benefits for plants, Si has been declared as a “Quasi-Essential” element. Accumulation of Si varies between plant species. Monocots such as rice accumulate approximately 10% of its dry weight, which is higher than essential elements such as nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K). Application of Si has a remarkable impact against pathogens, pests, and insects invasion in several plant species (Song et al., 2021). Similarly, Si combats against various abiotic stresses such as drought, cold, salinity, UV-B, and heavy metals (Mir et al., 2022).
Genome-wide identification, characterization, and expression analysis of Clavata3 Insensitive receptor Kinases (CIKs) on developmental tissues and under temperature stress conditions in Brassica oleracea
(Springer Nature Publishing AG, 2025) Suresh, Gokul Babu; Baskar, Harssitha; Subramaniam, Geethanjali; Soundararajan, Prabhakaran
Unprecedented climate changes are one of the major global threats to agriculture. Though cauliflower is grown worldwide in different conditions, it is sensitive to temperature fluctuation. Clavata3 Insensitive receptor Kinase (CIK) is one of the important co-receptors involved in WUS-CLV pathway for shoot apical meristem (SAM) maintenance, floral development and environment buffering. In this study we did genome-wide identification and characterization of CIKs in Brassica oleracea var. botrytis cv. Korso. Expression analysis was conducted on developmental tissues and short-term heat and cold stress conditions. Seven fulllength BolCIKs have been identified in the Korso genome through comparison against Arabidopsis thaliana CIKs. Gene structure and motifs are distinct between each sub-class. Ka/Ks ratios showed that all CIKs underwent purifying selection. Abundance of stress-responsive cis-elements, such as MYB and MYC recognition sites, showed the involvement of BolCIK in environmental stress regulation. Among the nine developmental tissues such as leaf, stem, root, curd, sepal, petal, stamen, pistil, and silique, except BolCIK4 and BolCIK5a, CIKs were merely detected in leaves. Contrastingly, expression of all BolCIKs was detected in stem, curd, and reproductive organs. Importantly, most of the BolCIKs were highly expressed in sepal, petal, pistil, and siliques. In SAM specific manner, BolCIK3 and BolCIK6 are upregulated in heat stress and cold stress, respectively. Other BolCIKs expressions are varying between tissues-types and stress conditions. Since CIKs can possibly be involved in thermomorphogenesis, results of this work may lead to further exploration of its function to improve climate resilience in cauliflower.
Genome-wide identification, characterization, and expression profiling of 14-3-3 genes in legumes
(Springer Nature Publishing AG, 2022) Chakraborty, Srija; Soundararajan, Prabhakaran; Kumar, Shailesh
In plants, a large multigene family encodes 14-3-3 proteins, which are commonly found in eukaryotes. They are involved in plant development and environmental stress regulation. The current study aims to identify and characterize the 14-3-3 gene family in four important legumes, viz. Cicer arietinum, Cajanus cajan, Vigna radiata and Arachis hypogaea. The 14-3-3 proteins were clustered into ε and non-ε groups based on phylogenetic analysis, which was further confrmed by gene structure analysis, and motif composition analysis. Our study suggests that segmental duplication events played a pivotal role in the evolution and expansion of this gene family. Evidence of both stress-responsive, and hormone-responsive cis-regulatory elements in the promoter region of the 14-3-3 genes points to the possibility that they might be involved in the interplay between hormone and stress signalling pathways. The expression profling using RNA-seq data sets showed a variation in expression level in most 14-3-3 genes under multiple stress conditions, and in diferent developmental stages. Hence, this study afrms the participation of the 14-3-3 genes in multiple stress regulation, and in growth and development of the legumes. The results obtained from this study provide crucial information for improved understanding, and stress response analysis of the 14-3-3 gene family in C. arietinum, C. cajan, V. radiata and A. hypogaea.
Heat stress mitigation by silicon nutrition in plants: A comprehensive overview
(Springer Nature Publishing AG, 2023) Shilpha, Jayabalan; Manivannan, Abinaya; Soundararajan, Prabhakaran; Jeong, Byoung Ryong
Rapid climatic changes have exacerbated the severity of extreme weather events in agricultural regions, such as rainfall, elevated temperatures, and drought stress. As a result, heat stress (HS) has emerged as one of the most serious abiotic risks to crop development, productivity, and nutritional security due to the continued rise in global mean temperature. According to the IPCC, average global temperatures will rise by 3–6 °C by 2100. Importantly, excessive temperature stress during the reproductive stage results in a significant reduction of crop output. Consequently, there is an urgent need to comprehend food crops’ response and tolerance mechanisms to heat stress. Plants respond to high-temperature stress by initiating a series of physiological, biochemical, and molecular events and adapt by activating many stress-responsive genes. Silicon (Si) is a subtle element that improves plant growth and development and protects it against numerous abiotic and biotic challenges. Several studies have proved that the exogenous application of Si has significantly mitigated the negative impacts of abiotic stresses. However, there have only been a few investigations on the Si’s role in reducing the deleterious consequences of heat stress. Therefore, this chapter summarizes the heat-induced responses and damages in plants. In a few examples, we discuss the versatile functions of Si in mitigating abiotic stresses, including heat stress and Si-mediated molecular mechanisms of heat stress tolerance.
Mentha arvensis and Mentha × piperita-vital herbs with myriads of pharmaceutical benefits
(MDPI AG, 2023) Wei, Hao; Kong, Shuai; Jayaraman, Vanitha; Selvaraj, Dhivya; Soundararajan, Prabhakaran; Manivannan, Abinaya
Mentha arvensis L. and Mentha × piperita L. are herbal plants belonging to the Lamiaceae family and are widely cultivated for their essential oils and culinary uses. These herbs are commercially valuable mints used in the preparation of herbal formulations, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and in food industries. Due to the presence of potential secondary metabolites, mints were employed to treat various disorders since ancient times in traditional medicines. The extracts of M. arvensis and M. × piperita can improve the function of digestive system, central nervous system and respiratory system of the human body. Majority of the health benefits of these herbs are attributed by the essential oil components. In addition, the administration of M. arvensis and M. × piperita under various pathological conditions studied in vitro and in vivo facilitated the recovery of detrimental ailments. Due to the increasing demand for natural product-based medicines, research is focused on the utilization of phytochemicals to treat various ailments. In order to provide a comprehensive overview of health benefits of M. arvensis and M. × piperita, the present endeavor deals with the antioxidant property, anti-inflammatory property, anti-microbial, and anti-cancer activities of both species. However, a deeper knowledge on the specific metabolites of M. arvensis and M. × piperita and their mode of action against different disease targets will accelerate the discovery of novel natural drugs with less side effects and higher efficiency.
Pangenome-wide identification, evolutionary analysis, and characterization of WOX gene family among Brassica Triangle of U's genomes
(Elsevier B.V., 2025) Soundararajan, Prabhakaran; Vivek, AT; Suresh, Gokul Babu; Shukla, Bhavya; Singh, Kanchan B.M.; Kumar, Shailesh; Manivannan, Abinaya
WUSCHEL-related homeobox (WOX) is an evolutionarily important gene family involved in key developmental processes such as embryo patterning, stem cell regulation, apical meristem maintenance, etc. Brassica contains several widely diversified and economically important vegetables grown worldwide. In this study, a pangenome-wide identification and characterization of the WOX gene family among all the species of Brassica Triangle of U's have been performed. WOX gene family was identified from the genomes of 31 Brassica species/morphotypes. About 26–28, 28, and 26–31 copies of WOX genes are present in diploid progenitors such as B. rapa (AA), B. nigra(BB), and B. oleracea (CC), respectively. In allotetraploid species, the number of WOX genes exceeds more than 50 copies. However, their number varies between morphotypes at the pangenome level. Motif and gene structure analysis showed distinct and conserved patterns between homoeologous genes. Non-synonymous (Ka)/Synonymous (Ks) ratio indicated that more number of modern/WUS clade orthologs underwent positive selection followed by those of the intermediate clade. Interacting networks between the WOX and miRNA showed that the CC genome has more complex network pattern compared to the AA genome. Although the WOX-miRNA interactions observed in both AABB and AACC genomes were distinct, they exhibited similarity in overlapping connections. Transcriptome data, analyzed from unfertilized ovule to seven developmental stages of embryos and their seed coat, sourced from public databases across six genomes, illustrated that WOX genes are expressed in a spatio-temporal manner throughout these developmental stages. Furthermore, qPCR analysis of WOX genes at two stages, such as 2–3 days old (leaf and root primordia) and 3 weeks old seedlings (leaf and root) in B. juncea and B. oleracea provides details of stage- and tissues-specific expression patterns between AB and C genomes. Overall, the present study sheds light on evolution and characterization of the WOX gene family in Brassica at the pangenome level for further functional validation.
Paradigm and framework of WUS-CLV feedback loop in stem cell niche for SAM maintenance and cell identity transition
(MDPI AG, 2022) Agarwal, Yamini; Shukla, Bhavya; Manivannan, Abinaya; Soundararajan, Prabhakaran
Shoot apical meristem (SAM) consists of stem cells that act as a reservoir for the aerial growth. It plays an important role in the differential architectural development in plants. SAM actively performs parallel functions by maintaining the pluripotent of stem cells and continuous organogenesis throughout the plant’s life cycle. Molecular mechanisms regulating the signaling networks of this dual function of the SAM have been progressively understood. In the SAM, the feedback loop of WUSCHEL (WUS)-CLAVATA (CLV) has been found to be the key regulator in stabilizing stem cell proliferation and differentiation. In general, WUS migrates into central zone (CZ) from organizing center (OC) and activates the expression of CLV3 by binding to the promoter elements. CLV3 acts as a ligand to interact with the CLV1, leucine rich repeats (LRR) receptor-like kinase (RLK) and LRR receptor-like protein CLV2, and protein kinase coryne (CRN) (CLV2/CRN) to restrict WUS transcription to the OC. Evolution of CLV3 is one of the main factors contributing to the transformation of two dimensional (2D) to 3D plants. WUS-CLV loop is involved in several pathways and networks that integrate on meristem maintenance and cell identity transition. WUSCLV maintains stem cells with simultaneous differentiation signals by the spatial-temporal signaling of the phytohormones. WUS-CLV loop has an interaction with reactive oxygen species (ROS), an important signaling molecules regulating cell proliferation and developmental transition. WUS also forms feedback loop with AGAMOUS (AG) for differentiation, proliferation, and termination of floral meristem. These loops might also involve in interaction with vernalization and its regulatory factors that oversees the precise timing of flowering after exposure to cold temperatures. In this review, we highlight the evolutionary and developmental importance of the WUS-CLV feedback loop on SAM maintenance and cell identity transition for inflorescence and floral meristem development.
Transcriptome-wide identification and expression analysis of expansin genes in big and small leaf-morphotypes of Adhatoda vasica
(Springer Nature Publishing AG, 2025) Soundararajan, Prabhakaran; Singh, Pooja; Letro, Awele; Singh, Gourav; Manivannan, Abinaya
In the present study the expansin genes were identified from Adhatoda vasica, a potential medicinal plant. It consists of two morphotypes S (small leaf bearing plants with low alkaloid content) and B (large leaf bearing plants with high alkaloid content). The difference in the leaf size influence the alkaloid content and it act as the economically important trait for this medicinal plant. Therefore, exploring the expression of expansins will facilitate the molecular regulation of leaf expansion in A. vasica. For the identification of expansins, Hidden Markov model (HMM) profiles of double-psi beta-barrel (DPBB) and pollen allergen domains were utilized and searched against the genomes of Arabidopsis thaliana, Catharanthus roseus and Camellia sinensis and confirmed with BLAST search against published expansins of A. thaliana. The resulted expansins were used for homology-based identification of expansin transcripts in A. vasica transcriptome assembly. A total of 22 expansin transcripts were identified in A. vasica leaf transcriptome. The phylogenetic tree illustrated that the expansins were clustered into four subfamily EXPA, EXPB, EXPLA, and EXPLB. Interactome analysis revealed that the expansins interacted with genes involved in cell wall modification. In addition, leaf transcriptome analysis of S and B morphotypes revealed that majority of the expansins were upregulated in B morphotype than S morphotype. Further, qPCR analysis of selected expansin genes from transcriptome were validated in the young and mature leaf tissues of both morphotypes. Overall, the outcomes of the present study will facilitate the understanding the expansins based molecular regulation of leaf size in A. vasica which will aid in the higher production of pharmaceutically important alkaloids.