Publications of NIPGR Scientists
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Item Foxtail millet (Setaria italica L.): a model for small millets(Elsevier B.V., 2023) Pramitha, Lydia; Choudhary, Pooja; Rana, Sumi; Singh, Roshan Kumar; Das, Pronomita; Sharma, Shriya; Ravikesavan, R; Prasad, Manoj; Muthamilarasan, MehanathanFoxtail millet (Setaria italica L.) is a small millet predominantly cultivated in arid and semi-arid regions of the world. India is the second-largest producer of foxtail millet, next to China, and the crop has importance in the history and civilization of the human race in these two countries. Although the foxtail millet was widely cultivated in the ancient era, it has lost its importance with time and became a marginally grown crop catering to the nutritional requirements of a limited population. Despite this, the crop has excellent yield contributing to agronomic traits along with climate-resilient characteristics. Being a C4 panicoid species with a small diploid genome, short lifecycle, in-breeding nature, and close relationship with biofuel grasses, foxtail millet has recently been considered as a C4 model crop to understand several agronomically important traits, including stress tolerance. Given the importance, the genome sequence of foxtail millet and green foxtail (S. viridis) is now available. The postgenome era has seen several crop studies, which provided extensive genetic and genomic resources for crop improvement. Studies including genetic and genomic dissection of nutritional traits, response to biotic and abiotic stresses, water-use and nitrogen-use efficiencies, biofuel traits, and deciphering the photosynthetic machinery have provided insights into the novel genes and pathways underlying the individual traits. This has also provided a roadmap for deploying similar studies in other millets using foxtail millet as a model. In this context, the chapter describes the botany, nutritional significance, global distribution, and production technologies being implemented in foxtail millet cultivation. The chapter also summarizes the outcomes of the studies being pursued to decode complex traits and provide a roadmap for executing similar work in other millet crops.Item Genomics approaches to synthesis plant-based biomolecules for therapeutic applications to combat SARS-CoV-2(Elsevier B.V., 2020) Sharma, Namisha; Muthamilarasan, Mehanathan; Prasad, Ashish; Prasad, ManojCOVID-19 caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is devastative to the humankind for which neither vaccines nor precise therapeutic molecules for treatment are identified. The search for new drugs and repurposing of existing drugs are being performed; however, at the same time, research on plants to identify novel therapeutic compounds or testing the existing ones is progressing at a slower phase. In this context, genomics and biotechnology offer various tools and strategies to manipulate plants for producing those complex biopharmaceutical products. This review enumerates the scope for research on plant-based molecules for their potential application in treating SARS-CoV-2 infection. Strategies to edit gene and genome, overexpression and silencing approaches, and molecular breeding for producing target biomolecules in the plant system are discussed in detail. Altogether, the present review provides a roadmap for expediting research on using plants as a novel source of active biomolecules having therapeutic applications.Item Millets genetic engineering: the progress made and prospects for the future(Springer Nature, 2019) Sood, Priyanka; Singh, Roshan Kumar; Prasad, ManojSustaining yield gains of grain legume crops under growing salt-stressed conditions demands a thorough understanding of plant salinity response and more efficient breeding techniques that effectively integrate modern omics knowledge. Grain legume crops are important to global food security being an affordable source of dietary protein and essential mineral nutrients to human population, especially in the developing countries. The global productivity of grain legume crops is severely challenged by the salinity stress particularly in the face of changing climates coupled with injudicious use of irrigation water and improper agricultural land management. Plants adapt to sustain under salinity-challenged conditions through evoking complex molecular mechanisms. Elucidating the underlying complex mechanisms remains pivotal to our knowledge about plant salinity response. Improving salinity tolerance of plants demand enriching cultivated gene pool of grain legume crops through capitalizing on 'adaptive traits' that contribute to salinity stress tolerance. Here, we review the current progress in understanding the genetic makeup of salinity tolerance and highlight the role of germplasm resources and omics advances in improving salt tolerance of grain legumes. In parallel, scope of next generation phenotyping platforms that efficiently bridge the phenotyping-genotyping gap and latest research advances including epigenetics is also discussed in context to salt stress tolerance. Breeding salt-tolerant cultivars of grain legumes will require an integrated "omics-assisted" approach enabling accelerated improvement of salt-tolerance traits in crop breeding programs.Item Multi-omics approaches for strategic improvement of stress tolerance in underutilized crop species: A climate change perspective(Elsevier B.V., 2019) Muthamilarasan, Mehanathan; Singh, Nagendra Kumar; Prasad, ManojFor several decades, researchers are working toward improving the “major” crops for better adaptability and tolerance to environmental stresses. However, little or no research attention is given toward neglected and underutilized crop species (NUCS) which hold the potential to ensure food and nutritional security among the ever-growing global population. NUCS are predominantly climate resilient, but their yield and quality are compromised due to selective breeding. In this context, the importance of omics technologies namely genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, phenomics and ionomics in delineating the complex molecular machinery governing growth, development and stress responses of NUCS is underlined. However, gaining insights through individual omics approaches will not be sufficient to address the research questions, whereas integrating these technologies could be an effective strategy to decipher the gene function, genome structures, biological pathways, metabolic and regulatory networks underlying complex traits. Given this, the chapter enlists the importance of NUCS in food and nutritional security and provides an overview of deploying omics approaches to study the NUCS. Also, the chapter enumerates the status of crop improvement programs in NUCS and suggests implementing “integrating omics” for gaining a better understanding of crops' response to abiotic and biotic stresses.Item Exploration of millet models for developing nutrient rich graminaceous crops(Elsevier B.V., 2016) Muthamilarasan, Mehanathan; Dhaka, Annvi; Yadav, Rattan; Prasad, ManojProtein-energy malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies contribute to high mortality among considerable proportion of the current 7.2 billion global populations, especially children. Although poverty and diets poor in nutrition are prime reasons for prevalence of malnutrition, nutritionally dense crops offer an inexpensive and sustainable solution to the problem of malnutrition. Remarkably, millets are nutritionally superior to major non-millet cereals. They especially are rich in dietary fibers, antioxidants, phytochemicals and polyphenols, which contribute broad-spectrum positive impacts to human health. However, millets have received lesser research attention universally, and considering this, the present review was planned to summarize the reports available on nutrition profile of millets and non-millet cereals to provide a comparative insight on importance of millets. It also emphasizes the need for research on deciphering nutritional traits present in millets and to develop strategies for introgressing these traits into other conventional staple crops using germplasm and 'omics' technologies. In some millet species, excellent 'omics' and germplasm panels have started to get available which can act as a starting point for understanding as well as of introgressing healthful traits across millets and non-millet cereals.