Publications of NIPGR Scientists
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Item Indian wheat genomics initiative for harnessing the potential of wheat germplasm resources for breeding disease-resistant, nutrient-dense, and climate-resilient cultivars(Frontiers Media S.A., 2022) Kumar, Sundeep; Jacob, Sherry R.; Mir, Reyazul Rouf; Vikas, V. K.; Kulwal, Pawan; Chandra, Tilak; Kaur, Satinder; Kumar, Uttam; Kumar, Suneel; Sharma, Shailendra; Singh, Ravinder; Prasad, Sai; Singh, Anju Mahendru; Singh, Amit Kumar; Kumari, Jyoti; Saharan, M. S.; Bhardwaj, Subhash Chander; Prasad, Manoj; Kalia, Sanjay; Singh, KuldeepWheat is one of the major staple cereal food crops in India. However, most of the wheat-growing areas experience several biotic and abiotic stresses, resulting in poor quality grains and reduced yield. To ensure food security for the growing population in India, there is a compelling need to explore the untapped genetic diversity available in gene banks for the development of stress-resistant/tolerant cultivars. The improvement of any crop lies in exploring and harnessing the genetic diversity available in its genetic resources in the form of cultivated varieties, landraces, wild relatives, and related genera. A huge collection of wheat genetic resources is conserved in various gene banks across the globe. Molecular and phenotypic characterization followed by documentation of conserved genetic resources is a prerequisite for germplasm utilization in crop improvement. The National Genebank of India has an extensive and diverse collection of wheat germplasm, comprising Indian wheat landraces, primitive cultivars, breeding lines, and collection from other countries. The conserved germplasm can contribute immensely to the development of wheat cultivars with high levels of biotic and abiotic stress tolerance. Breeding wheat varieties that can give high yields under different stress environments has not made much headway due to high genotypes and environmental interaction, non-availability of truly resistant/tolerant germplasm, and non-availability of reliable markers linked with the QTL having a significant impact on resistance/tolerance. The development of new breeding technologies like genomic selection (GS), which takes into account the G × E interaction, will facilitate crop improvement through enhanced climate resilience, by combining biotic and abiotic stress resistance/tolerance and maximizing yield potential. In this review article, we have summarized different constraints being faced by Indian wheat-breeding programs, challenges in addressing biotic and abiotic stresses, and improving quality and nutrition. Efforts have been made to highlight the wealth of Indian wheat genetic resources available in our National Genebank and their evaluation for the identification of trait-specific germplasm. Promising genotypes to develop varieties of important targeted traits and the development of different genomics resources have also been highlighted.Item IRONing out stress problems in crops: a homeostatic perspective(John Wiley & Sons, 2021) Bandyopadhyay, Tirthankar; Prasad, ManojIron (Fe) is essential for plant growth and therefore plays a key role in influencing crop productivity worldwide. Apart from its central role in chlorophyll biosynthesis and oxidative phosphorylation (electron transfer), it is an important constituent of many enzymes involved in primary metabolism. Fe has different accessibilities to the roots in the rhizosphere depending upon whether it is ferrous (soluble) or ferric (insoluble) oxidation stages, which in turn, determine two kinds of Fe uptake strategies employed by the plants. The reduction strategy is exclusively found in non‐graminaceous plants wherein the ferrous Fe2+ is absorbed and translocated from the soil through specialized transporters. In contrast, the chelation strategy (widespread in graminaceous plants) relies on the formation of Fe (III)‐chelate complex as the necessary requirement of Fe uptake. Once inside the cell, Fe is translocated, compartmentalized and stored through a common set of physiological processes involving many transporters and enzymes whose functions are controlled by underlying genetic components, so that a fine balance of Fe homeostasis is maintained. Recently, molecular and mechanistic aspects of the process involving the role of transcription factors, signalling components, and cis‐acting elements have been obtained, which has enabled a much better understanding of its ecophysiology. This mini‐review summarizes recent developments in our understanding of Fe transport in higher plants with particular emphasis on crops in the context of major agronomically important abiotic stresses. It also highlights outstanding questions on the regulation of Fe homeostasis and lists potentially useful genes/regulatory pathways that may be useful for subsequent crop improvement under the stresses discussed through either conventional or transgenic approaches.Item Global analysis of WRKY transcription factor superfamily in Setaria identifies potential candidates involved in abiotic stress signaling(Frontiers Media S.A., 2015) Muthamilarasan, Mehanathan; Bonthala, Venkata S.; Khandelwal, Rohit; Jaishankar, Jananee; Shweta, Shweta; Nawaz, Kashif; Prasad, ManojTranscription factors (TFs) are major players in stress signaling and constitute an integral part of signaling networks. Among the major TFs, WRKY proteins play pivotal roles in regulation of transcriptional reprogramming associated with stress responses. In view of this, genome- and transcriptome-wide identification of WRKY TF family was performed in the C4model plants, Setaria italica (SiWRKY) and S. viridis (SvWRKY), respectively. The study identified 105 SiWRKY and 44 SvWRKY proteins that were computationally analyzed for their physicochemical properties. Sequence alignment and phylogenetic analysis classified these proteins into three major groups, namely I, II, and III with majority of WRKY proteins belonging to group II (53 SiWRKY and 23 SvWRKY), followed by group III (39 SiWRKY and 11 SvWRKY) and group I (10 SiWRKY and 6 SvWRKY). Group II proteins were further classified into 5 subgroups (IIa to IIe) based on their phylogeny. Domain analysis showed the presence of WRKY motif and zinc finger-like structures in these proteins along with additional domains in a few proteins. All SiWRKY genes were physically mapped on the S. italica genome and their duplication analysis revealed that 10 and 8 gene pairs underwent tandem and segmental duplications, respectively. Comparative mapping of SiWRKY and SvWRKY genes in related C4 panicoid genomes demonstrated the orthologous relationships between these genomes. In silico expression analysis of SiWRKY and SvWRKY genes showed their differential expression patterns in different tissues and stress conditions. Expression profiling of candidate SiWRKY genes in response to stress (dehydration and salinity) and hormone treatments (abscisic acid, salicylic acid, and methyl jasmonate) suggested the putative involvement of SiWRKY066 and SiWRKY082 in stress and hormone signaling. These genes could be potential candidates for further characterization to delineate their functional roles in abiotic stress signaling.Item Transcription factors: modulating plant adaption in the scenario of changing climate(Springer, 2013) Puranik, Swati; Prasad, ManojClimate change and the associated environmental constraints have created a challenge to sustain food security and biodiversity globally. The response to adverse environments is a complex process and plants integrate several approaches that allow them to withstand climatic restraints, depending on the timing and length. Changes at the transcriptional level of various genes transduce cellular signals for the synthesis of necessary metabolites. Transcription factors have the principal role for the efficient adaptation capacity of the plants, and present an attractive target category for manipulation and gene regulation. As many biological processes in plants are regulated at the level of transcription, understanding transcription factor function is an important step towards understanding plant responses to environmental conditions. Among them, numerous transcription factors belonging to several large transcription factor families, such as AP2/ERF, bZIP, MYB, MYC, Cys2His2 zinc finger, WRKY, and NAC, have been shown as stress-responsive proteins. They act both by an abscisic acid-dependent and -independent manner, and through their interaction with respective cis-elements of their target genes, play crucial roles in recuperating plant stress tolerance. We highlight the considerable biotechnological progress made towards understanding the molecular stress responses of plants using important transcription factor families. The progress of their practical and application value in crop improvement through genetic engineering is also discussed.Item Foxtail millet: A model crop for genetic and genomic studies in bioenergy grasses(Informa UK Limited, an Informa Group Company (T&F Group), 2013) Lata, Charu; Gupta, Sarika; Prasad, ManojFoxtail millet is one of the oldest domesticated diploid C4 Panicoid crops having a comparatively small genome size of approximately 515 Mb, short life cycle, and inbreeding nature. Its two species, Setaria italica (domesticated) and Setaria viridis (wild progenitor), have characteristics that classify them as excellent model systems to examine several aspects of architectural, evolutionary, and physiological importance in Panicoid grasses especially the biofuel crops such as switchgrass and napiergrass. Foxtail millet is a staple crop used extensively for food and fodder in parts of Asia and Africa. In its long history of cultivation, it has been adapted to arid and semi-arid areas of Asia, North Africa, South and North America. Foxtail millet has one of the largest collections of cultivated as well as wild-type germplasm rich with phenotypic variations and hence provides prospects for association mapping and allele-mining of elite and novel variants to be incorporated in crop improvement programs. Most of the foxtail millet accessions can be primarily abiotic stress tolerant particularly to drought and salinity, and therefore exploiting these agronomic traits can enhance its efficacy in marker-aided breeding as well as in genetic engineering for abiotic stress tolerance. In addition, the release of draft genome sequence of foxtail millet would be useful to the researchers worldwide in not only discerning the molecular basis of biomass production in biofuel crops and the methods to improve it, but also for the introgression of beneficial agronomically important characteristics in foxtail millet as well as in related Panicoid bioenergy grasses.Item Abiotic stress-responsive expression of wali1 and wali5 genes from wheat(Landes Bioscience, 2012) Garg, Bharti; Puranik, Swati; Tuteja, Narendra; Prasad, ManojTwo cDNA clones, encoding Aluminum-responsive wali1 and wali5, were identified in dehydration stress-specific cDNA library from wheat. Their sequence variations and structural dissimilarities indicated them to be non-homologous genes. Expression of both genes was induced by various abiotic stresses as well as in response to plant hormones and oxidative molecules. Further, they were expressed differentially in shoot and root tissues of wheat seedlings, their transcripts being specifically abundant in roots. Previously characterized as being only Aluminum treatment induced, this report proposes them as novel candidates for stress-responsive studies.
