Institutional Publications

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Revisiting development and physiology of wild rice relatives for crop improvement and climate resilience
(Springer Nature Publishing AG, 2025) Mathan, Jyotirmaya; Dwivedi, Aditi; Ranjan, Aashish
Increasing rice yield and productivity under changing climatic conditions is imperative for sustainable food security, given rice is a major staple crop around the world. Natural variation in crop plants, including wild relatives, offers remarkable genetic variability to explore the desirable developmental and physiologic traits for crop improvement. Wild relatives of rice, with distinct developmental and physiologic features compared to cultivated varieties, are the potential genetic and genomic resource for rice yield increases under changing climate. A thorough genetic basis of rice developmental and architectural changes during domestication is now established with the identification and characterization of domestication genes. Photosynthetically efficient wild rice accessions, with desirable developmental, physiologic, and metabolic traits, have been identified in recent years that could be instrumental for rice improvement. While several abiotic and biotic stress-tolerant wild relatives of rice along with the associated genetic loci have been identified over the years, a comprehensive insight into the desirable developmental and physiologic attributes of the wild rice is limited. Moreover, the usage of wild rice is not streamlined in rice-improvement programs due to genetic and genomic constraints. In this review, we summarize the desirable developmental and physiologic features of wild rice species that can be exploited for combining yield increases with climate resilience in rice-improvement programs.
Non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) in plant: Master regulators for adapting to extreme temperature conditions
(Elsevier B.V., 2023) Jha, Uday Chand; Nayyar, Harsh; Roychowdhury, Rajib; Prasad, P. V. Vara; Parida, Swarup K.; Siddique, Kadambot H. M.
Unusual daily temperature fluctuations caused by climate change and climate variability adversely impact agricultural crop production. Since plants are immobile and constantly receive external environmental signals, such as extreme high (heat) and low (cold) temperatures, they have developed complex molecular regulatory mechanisms to cope with stressful situations to sustain their natural growth and development. Among these mechanisms, non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs), particularly microRNAs (miRNAs), small-interfering RNAs (siRNAs), and long-non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), play a significant role in enhancing heat and cold stress tolerance. This review explores the pivotal findings related to miRNAs, siRNAs, and lncRNAs, elucidating how they functionally regulate plant adaptation to extreme temperatures. In addition, this review addresses the challenges associated with uncovering these non-coding RNAs and understanding their roles in orchestrating heat and cold tolerance in plants.
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, Manoj
Introduction 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.

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