Institutional Publications
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Item Improving nutrient use efficiency (NtUE) in crops: an overview(Springer Nature Publishing AG, 2024) Maurya, Jyoti; Singh, Roshan Kumar; Prasad, ManojNutrients are essential components for plant growth, development, and survival, directly affecting crop yields. Ever-increasing global population has resulted into surged food demands while shrinking agricultural lands have led to soil nutrient depletion, causing deficiencies in plants and reduced yields. To bridge this gap, fertilizer applications have flowed, but excessive usage has severe environmental, economic, and health consequences. Minimizing fertilizer application without compromising crop yields due to nutrient deficiency is a pressing issue. To address this, understanding and enhancing Nutrient Use Efficiency (NtUE) in crops is essential. The present article discusses the fundamental of NtUE and its components, target traits to be taken into account for NtUE improvement, and holistic strategies to improve NtUE in crops. By improving intrinsic NtUE of crops, we can reduce fertilizer waste, mitigate environmental impacts, and ensure sustainable agricultural productivity.Item Identifying the mechanistic basis to nitrogen responsiveness in two contrasting Setaria italica accessions(Oxford University Press, 2024) Bandyopadhyay, Tirthankar; Maurya, Jyoti; Bentley, Alison R; Griffiths, Howard; Swarbreck, Stéphanie M; Prasad, ManojNitrogen (N) is a macronutrient limiting crop productivity with varied requirements across species and genotypes. Understanding the mechanistic basis of N responsiveness by comparing contrasting genotypes could inform the development and selection of varieties with lower N demands, or inform agronomic practices to sustain yields with lower N inputs. Given the established role of millets in ensuring climate-resilient food and nutrition security, we investigated the physiological and genetic basis of nitrogen responsiveness in foxtail millet (Setaria italica L.). We had previously identified genotypic variants linked to N responsiveness, and here, we dissect the mechanistic basis of the trait by examining the physiological and molecular behaviour of N responsive (NRp-SI58) and non-responsive (NNRp-SI114) accessions at high and low N. Under high N, NRp-SI58 allocates significantly more biomass to nodes, internodes and roots, more N to developing grains, and is more effective at remobilising flag leaf N compared to NNRp-SI114. Post anthesis flag leaf gene expression suggests that differences in N induce much higher transcript abundance in NNRp-SI114 than NRp-SI58, a large proportion of which are potentially regulated by APETALA2 (AP2) transcription factors. Overall, the study provides novel insights into the regulation and manipulation of N responsiveness in S. italica.Item Biotechnological strategies to generate climate-smart crops: Recent advances and way forward(John Wiley & Sons, 2023) Maurya, Jyoti; Singh, Roshan Kumar; Prasad, ManojIndustrialization and other man-made actions caused accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmospheric troposphere layer, leading to enhanced greenhouse effect and hike in average global temperature in response. This led to unpredicted and frequent occurrences of rainfall, droughts, floods, and other climatic events. Changing climate has imposed direct abiotic stresses leading severe threat to global crop production either directly (morpho-physio-chemical effects) or indirectly (socioeconomic effects) and caused food insecurity worldwide. Moreover, these climate change effects are predicted to become more severe in the future. So, to ensure the global food security, development of climate-smart crops is an urgent need. Biotechnology-based approaches have paved the way to understand the role of different genes and their applications to achieve climate change induced stress tolerance and developed crops for sustainable agriculture in the present scenario. Keeping this in mind, the present book chapter briefs about the effect of climate change on crop growth, development, and yield, as well as plant responses and adaptations during changing environments. This chapter also discusses different strategies implied to combat the climate change and highlights the integrative-omics based approach and biotechnological strategies, as well as their advancements toward generating the climate-smart crops.Item An insight into the roles of regulatory ncRNAs in plants: An abiotic stress and developmental perspective(Elsevier B.V., 2023) Panchal, Anurag; Maurya, Jyoti; Seni, Sushmita; Singh, Roshan Kumar; Prasad, ManojDifferent environmental cues lead to changes in physiology, biochemistry and molecular status of plant's growth. Till date, various genes have been accounted for their role in regulating plant development and response to abiotic stress. Excluding genes that code for a functional protein in a cell, a large chunk of the eukaryotic transcriptome consists of non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) which lack protein coding capacity but are still functional. Recent advancements in Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technology have led to the unearthing of different types of small and large non-coding RNAs in plants. Non-coding RNAs are broadly categorised into housekeeping ncRNAs and regulatory ncRNAs which work at transcriptional, post-transcriptional and epigenetic levels. Diverse ncRNAs play different regulatory roles in nearly all biological processes including growth, development and response to changing environments. This response can be perceived and counteracted by plants using diverse evolutionarily conserved ncRNAs like miRNAs, siRNAs and lncRNAs to participate in complex molecular regimes by activating gene-ncRNA-mRNA regulatory modules to perform the downstream function. Here, we review the current understanding with a focus on recent advancements in the functional studies of the regulatory ncRNAs at the nexus of abiotic stresses and development. Also, the potential roles of ncRNAs in imparting abiotic stress tolerance and yield improvement in crop plants are also discussed with their future prospects.Item The promise of millets in the twenty-first century: emphasis on breeding, nutrition, food security and sustainability(Springer Nature Publishing AG, 2023) Bandyopadhyay, Tirthankar; Singh, Roshan Kumar; Ramesh, Palakurthi; Maurya, Jyoti; Prasad, ManojGlobal population is expected to cross 11 billion by the turn of the century, which has put immense pressure on the existing agricultural systems worldwide. This is complicated by gradually decreasing productivity and acreage as a result of climate change in addition to ever-increasing input costs of resource hungry staple crops like rice, wheat, and maize. Unfortunately, the most affected by these events are those who have the least resources at their disposal to mitigate the issue, especially in countries of Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. It is therefore pertinent to explore and adopt alternative and/or complementary crops that are easier to cultivate, climate change tolerant, less resource hungry, nutritionally richer for human consumption, and agriculturally sustainable. Millets are perfect cereal crops which meet all of these requirements and can realistically provide much-needed solutions to current global food and nutritional security challenges. In this review, we provide a bird’s eye view of the relevance of millets in global agro-ecosystems in the context of their nutritional and agronomic attributes. Furthermore, we share perspectives on the major areas of crop improvement programs worldwide and discuss major challenges confronting the same. Finally, we discourse on the scope of millets for wider acceptability and highlight major points at the interface of genetic intervention–crop management post-harvest practices worth considering to potentially facilitate robust millet-based nutritional and food security.Item GWAS identifies genetic loci underlying nitrogen responsiveness in the climate resilient C4 model Setaria italica (L.)(Elsevier B.V., 2022) Bandyopadhyay, Tirthankar; Swarbreck, Stéphanie M; Jaiswal, Vandana; Maurya, Jyoti; Gupta, Rajeev; Bentley, Alison R.; Griffiths, Howard; Prasad, ManojIntroduction N responsiveness is the capacity to perceive and induce morpho-physiological adaptation to external and internal Nitrogen (N). Crop productivity is propelled by N fertilizer and requires the breeding/selection of cultivars with intrinsically high N responsiveness. This trait has many advantages in being more meaningful in commercial/environmental context, facilitating in-season N management and not being inversely correlated with N availability over processes regulating NUE. Current lack of its understanding at the physio-genetic basis is an impediment to select for cultivars with a predictably high N response. Objectives To dissect physio-genetic basis of N responsiveness in 142 diverse population of foxtail millet, Setaria italica (L.) by employing contrasting N fertilizer nutrition regimes. Methods We phenotyped S. italica accessions for major yield related traits under low (N10, N25) and optimal (N100) growth conditions and genotyped them to subsequently perform a genome-wide association study to identify genetic loci associated with nitrogen responsiveness trait. Groups of accessions showing contrasting trait performance and allelic forms of specific linked genetic loci (showing haplotypes) were further accessed for N dependent transcript abundances of their proximal genes. Results Our study show that N dependent yield rise in S. italica is driven by grain number whose responsiveness to N availability is genetically underlined. We identify 22 unique SNP loci strongly associated with this trait out of which six exhibit haplotypes and consistent allelic variation between lines with contrasting N dependent grain number response and panicle architectures. Furthermore, differential transcript abundances of specific genes proximally linked to these SNPs in same lines is indicative of their N dependence in a genotype specific manner. Conclusion The study demonstrates the value/ potential of N responsiveness as a selection trait and identifies key genetic components underlying the trait in S. italica. This has major implications for improving crop N sustainability and food security.Item Regulation of small RNA-mediated high temperature stress responses in crop plants(Springer Nature Publishing AG, 2022) Singh, Roshan Kumar; Prasad, Ashish; Maurya, Jyoti; Prasad, ManojThroughout their life cycle, plants have to regulate their gene expression at various developmental phases, physiological changes, and in response to biotic or environmental stress. High temperature is one the most common abiotic stress for crop plants, that results in impaired morphology, physiology, and yield. However, plants have certain mechanisms that enable them to withstand such conditions by modulating the expression of stress-related genes. Small RNA (sRNA)-regulated gene expression is one such mechanism which is ubiquitous in all eukaryotes. The sRNAs mainly include micro RNAs (miRNAs) and small interfering RNAs (siRNAs). They are primarily associated with the gene silencing either through translation inhibition, mRNA degradation, or DNA methylation. During high temperature stress the increased or decreased level of miRNAs altered the protein accumulation of target transcripts and, therefore, regulate stress responses. Several reports are available in plants which are genetically engineered through expressing artificial miRNAs resulted in thermotolerance. sRNAs have also been reported to bring the epigenetic changes on chromatin region through RNA-dependent DNA methylation (RdDM). The present article draws a brief illustration of sRNA origin, their functional mechanisms, role in high temperature stress, and possible application for developing stress tolerant crop plants.Item Transcriptional regulators of nitrate metabolism: key players in improving nitrogen use in crops(Elsevier B.V., 2020) Maurya, Jyoti; Bandyopadhyay, Tirthankar; Prasad, ManojGreen revolution has boosted crop yields by the development of varieties which rely on high fertilizer application. Since then, higher productivity has largely witnessed excessive nitrogen (N) fertilizer application resulting in many environmentally and agronomically unsustainable consequences. One possible solution to this problem is to develop varieties with efficient N use endowed with genetically superior N metabolizing machinery, thereby significantly reducing N loss in soil and facilitating gainful yield performance at lower N conditions. Nitrate (NO3-) is the major form of N acquired by plants in aerobic soils. Hence, its efficient acquisition, transport, assimilation into complex organic compounds, and overall homeostasis is crucial to ensure productivity under optimal and suboptimal N conditions. Transcription factors are prime regulators of these processes, and insights into their mechanism of action and the resultant effect on N metabolism are crucial to generating crops with efficient and durable nitrogen use efficiency. The present review, therefore, presents a comprehensive updated account of major N responsive transcription factor families, their cross-talk with other growth factors, and explores existing and potential areas of their biotechnological application to maximize crop yields.