Research Groups
Plant Biology: Plant Molecular Biology
Research Interests and Description
Staff Research Scientist: Nirupam Roy Choudhury, PhD
Group Leader: Sunil Kumar Mukherjee
Research Interests
Study of the replication machinery of geminiviruses.
Description of Research
Geminiviruses are plant pathogens and replicate in the nucleus of the host plant in a cell cycle dependent manner. Our Group is interested in elucidating the mechanism of geminiviral DNA replication taking Mungbean yellow mosaic India virus (MYMIV) and Tomato leaf curl virus (ToLCV) as model systems. We have observed that geminiviral Rep protein possesses intrinsic DNA binding, nicking, ATPase and helicase activities, and so forth, which are required for its involvement in the replication process. Currently we are interested in the identification and characterization of various host factors, which participate in geminiviral replication. By employing techniques like Phage display and Yeast two hybrid, we have been able to identify few such host factors and these studies are underway.
Recently, we have also been able to constitute an in vitro replication assay system using a nuclear extract from Saccharomyces cerevisiae (yeast) and our preliminary studies show that this extract is very efficient in supporting the replication of vectors constructed based on geminiviral genome. We are currently extrapolating the work with the nuclear extracts prepared from various yeast mutants and directly checking the geminiviral DNA replication efficiency in such extracts.
Recent Publications
Naqvi, A.R., Choudhury, N.R., Mukherjee, S.K., Haq, Q.M.R. 2011. In silico analysis reveals that several tomato microRNA/microRNA* sequences exhibit propensity to bind to tomato leaf curl virus (ToLCV) associated genomes and most of their encoded open reading frames (ORFs). Plant Physiol Biochem 49, 13-17 PubMed link
Pasumarthy, K.K., Mukherjee, S.K., Choudhury, N.R. 2011. The presence of Tomato leaf curl Kerala virus (ToLCKeV) AC3 protein enhances viral DNA replication and modulates virus induced gene silencing mechanism in tomato plants. Virol J 8, 178 PubMed link
Pandey, P., Mukhopadhya, S., Naqvi, A.R., Mukherjee, S.K., Shekhawat, G.S., Choudhury, N.R. 2010. Molecular characterization of two distinct monopartite begomoviruses infecting tomato in India. Virol J 7, 337 PubMed link
Pasumarthy, K.K., Choudhury, N.R., Mukherjee, S.K. 2010. Tomato leaf curl Kerala virus (ToLCKeV) AC3 protein forms a higher order oligomer and enhances ATPase activity of replication initiator protein (Rep/AC1). Virol J 7, 128 PubMed link
Prusthy, D., Dar, M., Mishra, R., Sharma, A., Dana, S., Choudhury, N.R., Subbarao, N., Dhar, S.K. 2010. Single stranded DNA binding protein from human malarial parasite Plasmodium falciparum is encoded in the nucleus and targeted to the apicoplast. Nucleic Acids Res 38, 7037-7053 PubMed link
Pandey, P., Choudhury, N. R., Mukherjee, S. K. 2009. A geminiviral amplicon (VA) derived from Tomato leaf curl virus (ToLCV) can replicate in a wide variety of plant species and also acts as a VIGS vector. Virol J 6, 152 PubMed link
