DEPARTMENT OF PLANT MOLECULAR BIOLOGY

Jitendra P. Khurana

Professor & Coordinator (UGC-SAP)

Telephone No.: 091 11 24115126 (work), 091 11 24119090 (home)

Fax: 091 11 24111208, 24115270; E-mail: khuranaj@genomeindia.org

Specialization:Photoperception and Signal Transduction Mechanisms in plants; Plant Hormone Action Mechanisms; Structural and Functional Genomics in Plants

Research interests: Our group has contributed extensively to the area of light perception and signal transduction mechanisms in plants. Some of the initial works on Arabidopsis mutants lead to the identification of the blue light receptor, phototropin1, which in fact remained elusive for over a century. During a screen for phototropism mutants, we also identified constitutively photomorphogenic mutants that display de-repression of gene expression in dark and flower precociously. Some other novel mutants characterized recently include bls1, cnr1 and prl2, which are defective in light, hormone and sugar signaling. Fine mapping of these mutated loci is in progress to eventually clone the corresponding genes and elucidate their function. The genes encoding blue light receptors, CRY1 and CRY2, have been isolated and sequenced from Brassica napus and rice and functionally validated in transgenics for their role in regulating agronomically important traits like plant height and flowering time. Based on the microarray analysis of transgenics, it has become obvious that CRY1 regulates plant height largely by modulating the expression of genes involved in GA biosynthesis, auxin signalling and cell wall modification enzymes. In addition, the genes for red/far-red sensing phytochromes (PHYA and PHYC) have been characterized from hexaploid wheat and their evolutionary relationship examined.

In the past over ten years, the focus in my lab has gradually shifted towards structural and functional genomics in plants. Our group at South Campus has actively participated in sequencing rice and tomato genomes as part of the International Consortia. In a collaborative project, we have recently sequenced the genome of Mycobacterium indicus pranii, a non-infectious soil bacterium of therapeutic importance.

Using genome sequence resources, we have phylogenetically analyzed and characterized several rice gene families, including auxin-inducible AUX/IAA, SAUR and GH3 gene families, and a sub-group of cytokinin-inducible Response Regulator (RR) genes. An extensive bioinformatic analysis has also been carried out for two very important classes of transcription factor genes in rice encoding F-box proteins (involved in 26S proteasome-mediated protein degradation) and the basic leucine zipper (bZIP) proteins, known to be involved in light and hormone signalling. How the expression of these genes is altered during various stages of panicle and seed development and under various abiotic stress conditions has been analyzed for prioritization of genes for functional analysis in transgenics adopting RNAi approach.

We also have interest in genes involved in chromatin modulations, which are turning out to be of great significance in regulation of gene expression in living organisms. The genes encoding polycomb group/SET domain proteins have also been annotated and classified from rice. One such gene that preferentially expresses in the reproductive tissue has been characterized functionally. When over-expressed, it could restore telomere silencing in a yeast mutant, indicating functional conservation of gene repression mechanisms in eukaryotic chromatin. In addition, genes encoding topoisomerase 6 (TOP6A1, A2, A3 and TOP6B), a subclass of topoisomerase II, have been characterized from rice. When rice TOP6A1, TOP6A3 and TOP6B genes were over-expressed in Arabidopsis (as a model system), all the genes independently conferred tolerance to abiotic stress, suggesting their use in transgenic manipulation for stress tolerance in crop plants like rice.

Awards/distinction:

Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi; Fellow of Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore; Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, India; Fellow of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, India; Professor Shri Ranjan Memorial Award (2006) by the National Academy of Sciences, India; Professor Panchanan Maheshwari Memorial Lecture Award, by the Indian National Science Academy (2008); Awarded ‘Tata Innovation Fellowship’ by the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India (2010-2013); Awarded Prof. Birbal Sahni Medal by the Indian Botanical Society (2011). President of the Indian Photobiology Society (2003-2005); Fellow in Residence at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., USA (1985-1986); Visiting Research Associate at the MSU-DOE Plant Research Lab, Michigan State University, East Lansing, USA (1986-1988); Awarded FERRO Fellowship for short-term visits to USDA, Beltsville, USA (in 1996,1998); Visiting Professor at the Waksman Institute, Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA (June-August, 2001).

Head of the Department (1995-1998; 2001-2004); Chairman of the Board of Research Studies, FIAS (2003-2006); Coordinator, UGC-SAP (2002 onwards); Served on several project advisory committees of DST, DBT, ICAR and CSIR; Member, National Committee for International Union of Biological Sciences (IUBS), constituted by INSA (2008 - onwards); Member of the Editorial Board of ‘Journal of Bioscience’, Indian Journal of Microbiology’, Journal of Plant Biology’, and Journal of Plant Biochemistry and Biotechnology’.

Publications:

Out of nearly 150 papers published, a select list of ten is provided.

• Chauhan, H., Khurana, N., Khurana, J.P. and Khurana, P. (2012). The wheat chloroplastic small heat shock protein (shsp26) is involved in seed maturation and imparts tolerance to heat stress. Plant Cell Environ. (In press).
• JAIN, M. and KHURANA, J.P. 2009. An expression compendium of auxin-responsive genes during reproductive development and abiotic stress in rice. FEBS J. 276: 3148-3162.
• Nijhawan, A., Jain, M., Tyagi, A.K. and Khurana, J.P. 2008. A genomic survey and gene expression analysis of basic leucine zipper (bZIP) transcription factor family in rice. Plant Physiology 146: 333-350.
• Jain, M., Nijhawan, A., Arora, R., Agarwal, P., Ray, S., Sharma, P., Kapoor, S., Tyagi, A.K. and Khurana, J.P. 2007. F-box proteins in rice. Genome-wide analysis, classification, temporal and spatial gene expression during panicle and seed development, and regulation by light and abiotic stress. Plant Physiology 143: 1467-1483.
• Jain, M., Tyagi, A.K. and Khurana, J.P. 2006. The over-expression of putative topoisomerase 6 genes from rice confers stress tolerance in transgenic Arabidopsis plants. FEBS Journal 273: 5245-5260.
• Laxmi, A., Paul, L.K., Raychaudhuri, A., Peters, J. and Khurana, J.P. 2006. Arabidopsis cytokinin-resistant mutant, cnr1, displays altered auxin responses and sugar sensitivity. Plant Molecular Biology 62: 409-425.
• Chatterjee, M., Sharma, P. and Khurana, J.P. 2006. CRYPTOCHROME 1 from Brassica napus is upregulated by blue light and controls hypocotyl/stem growth and anthocyanin accumulation. Plant Physiology 141: 61-74.
• International Rice Genome Sequencing Program 2005. The map-based sequence of the rice genome. Nature 436: 793-800.
• Thakur, J.K., Malik, M.R., Bhatt, V., Reddy, M.K., Sopory, S.K., Tyagi, A.K. and Khurana, J.P. 2003. A POLYCOMB group gene of rice (Oryza sativa L. subsp. indica), OsiEZ1, codes for a nuclear localized protein expressed preferentially in young seedlings and during reproductive development. Gene 314: 1-13.
• Khurana, J.P. and Poff, K.L. 1989. Mutants of Arabidopsis thaliana with altered phototropism. Planta 178: 400-406.

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