Research Groups

Plant Biology: Plant Molecular Biology

Research Interests and Description

Staff Research Scientist: Sneh Lata Singla-Pareek, PhD

Research Interests

Stress Molecular Biology and Crop biotechnology, functional genomics of plant abiotic stresses, transgenics, gene stacking.

Description of Research

Soil salinity is a global problem and a solution by any method, such as conventional breeding, molecular markers or transgenic approach, will create an opportunity for cultivation of crops in soils affected by salinity. In an effort to contribute towards the goal of raising plants with better suitability with respect to deteriorating edaphic factors, we have isolated and characterized several stress responsive genes. From these sets of genes, a few have been functionally validated through functional genomics. In particular, those involved in removing cellular toxicity, as mediated via the glyoxalase pathway, have been found to be able to tolerate multiple stresses such as salinity, drought and heavy metals. The biochemical basis of this improved tolerance has also been addressed. This glyoxalase pathway has been engineered in rice conferring enhanced salinity and drought tolerance. In a joint venture with a commercial seed company, the glyoxalase pathway has been introgressed in a salt sensitive rice genotype, which can germinate under high levels of salinity.
Another major focus of our research is to isolate and characterize novel stress responsive genes as possible candidates for future transgenics for salinity and drought tolerance. Gene pyramiding efforts are underway to further enhance stress tolerance limits.
Technologies Developed
1. Isolation and cloning of genes of interest from a range of crop plants.
2. Transformation and regeneration protocols for Nicotiana tabaccum, Brassica juncea, B. nigra, O. sativa IR64, O. sativa PB1 and Solanum lycopersicum.
3. Isolation of promoters from crop plants for novel stress related genes.
4. Strategy for raising antibiotic “marker-free” transgenic plants.
5. Protocols for testing and assessing stress tolerance of transgenic plants under controlled greenhouse conditions and assessment of vital parameters.
Two products have been raised, with limited greenhouse testing, towards raising stress tolerance crop plants. The transgenic rice O. sativa is being shared with commercial and non-commercial partners (CSSRI, KARNAL and Bioseed Research) for testing under field conditions and release to the end user.

Recent Publications

Kumar, G., Kushwaha, H.R., Singla-Pareek, S.L., Pareek, A. 2011. Cloning, structural and expression analysis of OsSOS2 in contrasting cultivars of rice under salinity stress. 2011. Genes, Genomes, Genomics In press

Samanta, S., Reddy, M.K., Singla-Pareek, S.L., Sopory, S.K. 2011. Stress and development specific regulation of alternative splicing in plants. J Plant Biol In press

Kushwaha, H.R., Kumar, G., Verma, P.K., Singla-Pareek, S.L., Pareek, A. 2011. Analysis of a salinity induced BjSOS3 protein from Brassica indicate it to be structurally and functionally related to its ortholog from Arabidopsis. Plant Physiol Biochem 49, 996-1004 PubMed link

Mustafiz, A., Singh, A.K., Pareek, A., Sopory, S.K., Singla-Pareek, S.L. 2011. Genome-wide identification of glyoxalase genes and their expression profiling during development and in response to abiotic stresses in Arabidopsis and rice. Funct Integr Genomics 11, 293-305

Saxena, M., Roy, S.D., Singla-Pareek, S.L., Sopory, S.K., Bhalla-Sarin, N. 2011. Overexpression of the Glyoxalase II gene leads to enhanced salinity tolerance in Brassica juncea. The Open Plant Science Journal 5, 2-28

Mustafiz, A., Sahoo, K.K., Singla-Pareek, S.L., Sopory, S.K. Metabolic engineering of glyoxalase pathway for enhancing stress tolerance in plants. 2010. Methods Mol Biol 639, 95-118 PubMed link