Publications of NIPGR Scientists

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Author: search.filters.author.Kumar, RahulSubject: search.filters.subject.Sheath blight disease

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    Rs_MEP1 is required for the pathogenesis of Rhizoctonia solani AG1-IA in plants
    (The American Phytopathological Society (APS), 2026) Pradhan, Amrita; Sahoo, Debashis; Bhati, Vikrant; Kumar, Rahul; Yadav, Rajni; Ghosh, Srayan; Pawar, Prashant Anupama-Mohan; Jha, Gopaljee
    Rhizoctonia solani AGI-IA is a polyphagous necrotrophic fungal pathogen that causes sheath blight disease in rice. Efforts are being made to identify pathogenicity-associated genes in R. solani and modulate them to develop a disease control strategy. Here, we investigate the roles of some predicted pathogenicity-associated genes of R. solani that have previously been reported to be upregulated during infection in rice. The tobacco rattle virus-based host-induced gene silencing of the selected pathogenicity-associated genes revealed that silencing of Rs_MEP1, a zinc-containing Peptidase_M43 domain-metalloprotease, severely compromises R. solani infection in tomato. Moreover, double-stranded RNA-mediated silencing of Rs_MEP1 prevented R. solani infection in rice. The signal sequence trap assay indicated the secretory nature of Rs_MEP1, while the reporter assay suggested its localization in the plant apoplast. Notably, agrobacterium-mediated transient overexpression of Rs_MEP1 induces necrotic cell death responses in plants. We provide evidence that Rs_MEP1 interacts with GH19 family of rice chitinases and potentially modulates their functions. Overall, our study emphasizes that Rs_MEP1 facilitates R. solani in promoting necrotic responses and targets rice GH19 chitinases to impart disease susceptibility in plants.
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    RAV1 family members function as transcriptional regulators and play a positive role in plant disease resistance
    (John Wiley & Sons, 2023) Chandan, Ravindra Kumar; Kumar, Rahul; Swain, Durga Madhab; Ghosh, Srayan; Bhagat, Prakash Kumar; Patel, Sunita; Bagler, Ganesh; Sinha, Alok Krishna; Jha, Gopaljee
    Phytopathogens pose a severe threat to agriculture and strengthening plant defense response is an important strategy for disease control. Here, we report that AtRAV1, an AP2 and B3 domain-containing transcription factor is required for basal plant defense in Arabidopsis thaliana. The atrav1 mutant lines demonstrate hyper-susceptibility against fungal pathogens (Rhizoctonia solani and Botrytis cinerea) while AtRAV1 overexpressing (OE) lines exhibit disease resistance against them. Enhanced expression of various defense genes and activation of MAP kinases (AtMPK3 and AtMPK6) are observed in the R. solani infected OE lines, but not in the atrav1 mutant plants. In-vitro phosphorylation assay suggests AtRAV1 to be a novel phosphorylation target of AtMPK3. The bimolecular fluorescence complementation and yeast two-hybrid assay support physical interactions between AtRAV1 and AtMPK3. Overexpression of the native as well as phospho-mimic but not the phospho-defective variant of AtRAV1 impart disease resistance in the atrav1 mutant A. thaliana lines. On the other hand, overexpression of AtRAV1 fails to impart disease resistance in the atmpk3 mutant. These analyses emphasize that AtMPK3-mediated phosphorylation of AtRAV1 is important for the elaboration of defense response in A. thaliana. Considering that RAV1 homologs are conserved in diverse plant species, we propose that they can be gainfully deployed to impart disease resistance in agriculturally important crop plants. Indeed, overexpression of SlRAV1 (a member of the RAV1 family) imparts disease tolerance against not only fungal (R. solani and B. cinerea) but also against bacterial (Ralstonia solanacearum) pathogens in tomato, while silencing of the gene enhances disease susceptibility.
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    Bacteria-fungal confrontation and fungal growth prevention assay
    (Bio-protocol LLC., 2018) Kumar, Rahul; Swain, Durga Madhab; Yadav, Sunil Kumar; Tyagi, Isha; Kumar, Rajeev; Das, Joyati; Ghosh, Srayan; Jha, Gopaljee
    There are some bacteria which can grow and multiply at the cost of living fungal biomass. They can potentially utilize fungi as a source of nutrients to forage over them. Such phenomenon is known as bacterial mycophagy, however, its mechanistic insights need to be explored to identify the molecules involved in mycophagy for potential utilization in controlling various fungal diseases. Recently we have demonstrated that a rice-associated bacteria Burkholderia gladioli strain NGJ1 exhibits mycophagous ability on several fungi, including Rhizoctonia solani, the necrotrophic fungal pathogen causing sheath blight disease in rice. We hereby describe our validated and efficient methods used to study B. gladioli strain NGJ1-R. solani interactions. These methodologies would be useful for designing assays to study the confrontation between bacteria and fungi which in turn enable discovery of novel antifungal molecules from such bacteria.