• Visiting Faculty (April - August 2014): Department of Biochemistry & Cellular & Molecular Biology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, USA.
• Scientist (Oct 2009 - present): National Institute for Plant Genome Research, New Delhi, India.
• Assistant Professor (Sep 2008- Sep 2009): Indian Institute of Science Education & Research - Kolkata, Mohanpur, India.
• Research Fellow (Jan 2004 - Aug 2008): Harvard Medical School/MGH Cancer Center, Boston, USA.

International

• Fellowship for Medical Discovery (ECOR-FMD), Massachussets Genreal Hospital, Boston, USA. 2006-2008
• Financial Aid Award, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York, USA. 2006
• Keystone Scholarship 2002
• IAPTC&B Fellowship 2002
• National
• Prof. Archana Sharma Memorial Award given by Indian Science Congress Association. 2017
• Innovative Young Biotechnologist Award (IYBA) from DBT, Govt. of India. 2008
• INSA (Indian National Science Academy) medal for Young Scientist. 2008
• Junior and Senior Research Fellowships, CSIR-UGC-NET, 2000-2003
• DBT scholarship for M.Sc.(Biotechnology). 1994-1996
• Membership of Academic Honours Society of Mathematics on the basis of merit. Christian College, Lucknow. 1993

National

• Prof. Archana Sharma Memorial Award given by Indian Science Congress Association. 2017
• Innovative Young Biotechnologist Award (IYBA) from DBT, Govt. of India. 2008
• INSA (Indian National Science Academy) medal for Young Scientist. 2008
• Junior and Senior Research Fellowships, CSIR-UGC-NET, 2000-2003
• DBT scholarship for M.Sc.(Biotechnology). 1994-1996
• Membership of Academic Honours Society of Mathematics on the basis of merit. Christian College, Lucknow. 1993

 

1. Architecture and function of plant Mediator complex

In last two decades, Mediator complex has emerged as the key component of RNA pol II-dependent transcriptional regulation of gene expression. Most of the knowledge about mechanistic details of Mediator functioning has come from studies in yeast and metazoan systems. Our lab is studying different aspects of Mediator functioning in plants. We are using Arabidopsis and rice as model systems. We have explained role of Intrinsically Disorder Regions (IDRs) in the evolution of diversified role of Mediator functioning and establishing extensive protein-protein interaction network. In another study, we delineated interaction map of Arabidopsis Mediator complex and expounded its structural topology. Now, we are trying to characterize the transcriptional network being controlled by different Mediator subunits as important regulatory switches. We are also looking at the functional relevance of individual Mediator subunits in different signalling pathways affecting growth and development of plants. We are also interested to know if Mediator collaborates with or affects the chromatin structure during gene regulation.

2. Epigenetic regulation of seed development

Epigenetic modifications of chromatin play very important role in programming the gene expression network. Available literature suggests that many genomic loci are epigenetically modified during reproductive phases of plant life cycle. However, we do not know how these epigenetic modifications drive different phases of seed development. Our laboratory is interested in unravelling the basic aspect of epigenetic regulation of seed development in rice.

3. Characterization of novel phytochemicals possessing anticandida activity

Infections caused by pathogenic fungi are very serious threat as billions of people all over the world are affected by them. Candida species have been found to be the main cause of widespread fungal infections ranking fourth among the hospital-acquired infections. Since, azole and other current treatment of Candida infection often lead to proliferation of resistant Candida species, use of plant extract will be useful. We are interested in to purification and characterization of anticandida activities from different plants.

• Dr. Jitender Singh                  RA
• Dr. Alim Junaid                       SRF
• Mr. Shubhashis Das               Ph.D student
• Mr. Sourobh Maji                   Ph.D student
• Mr. Angad Kumar                  Ph.D student
• Ms. Rekha Agrawal               Ph.D student
• Ms. Pallabi Thakur                 Ph.D student
• Ms. Anjitha Kumari               SRF

• Dr. Malini Nagulapalli                 Research Associate
• Dr. Subhasis Samanta               Research Associate
• Dr. Nidhi Dwivedi                      Ph.D student
• Dr. Pradeep Dahiya                   Ph.D student
• Dr. Vinay Kumar                       Ph.D student
• Ms. Rupali Kumari                    Ph.D student
• Dr. Arvind Rai                          SRF
• Ms. Harshita Bharti Saxena       JRF
• Dr. Divya S. Bhat                     Research    Associate
• Dr. Tanvir-Ul-Hassan Dar          Research Associate
• Ms. Richa Pasrija                     JRF

• Dwivedi N, Maji S, Waseem M, Thakur P, Kumar V, Parida SK and Thakur JK (2019) The Mediator subunit OsMED15a is transcriptional co-regulator of seed size/weight-modulating genes in rice. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta - Gene Regulatory Mechanism (In Press)
• Maji S, Dahiya P, Waseem M, Dwivedy N, Bhat DS, Dar T and Thakur JK (2019). Interaction map of Arabidopsis Mediator complex expounding its topology. Nucleic Acids Res. 47: 3904-3920.
• Patel MK, Das S and Thakur JK (2018). GC-MS based analysis of Methanol: chloroform extracted fatty acid profiling from plant tissues. Bio. Protoc. DOI: 10.21769/BioProtoc.3014.
• Nagpal N, Sharma S, Maji S, Durante G, Ferracin M, Thakur JK* and Kulshreshtha R* (2018). Essential role of MED1 in the transcriptional regulation of ER-dependent oncogenic miRNAs in breast cancer Sci. Rep. 8:11805 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-29546-9. (* Corresponding authors)
• Kumar V, Waseem M, Dwivedi N, Maji S, Kumar A and Thakur JK (2018). KIX domain of AtMed15a, a Mediator subunit of Arabidopsis, is required for its interaction with different proteins. Plant Signal Behav. Doi: 10.1080/15592324.2018.1428514
• Prakash P, Zeeshan M, Saini E, Muneer A, Khurana S, Kumar Chourasia B, Deshmukh A, Kaur I, Dabral S, Singh N, Anam Z, Chaurasiya A, Kaushik S, Dahiya P, Kalamuddin M, Kumar Thakur J, Mohmmed A, Ranganathan A, Malhotra P (2017). Human Cyclophilin B forms part of a multi-protein complex during erythrocyte invasion by Plasmodium falciparum. Nat Commun. Doi: 10.1038/s41467-017-01638-6
• Yadav A, Thakur JK, Yadav G. (2017) KIXBASE: A comprehensive web resource for identification and exploration of KIX domains. Sci Rep. 14924. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-14617-0.
• Samanta S and Thakur JK (2017) Characterization of Mediator complex and its associated proteins from rice. Methods Mol Biol. 1629: 123-140
• Ghosh S, Kaushik A, Khurana S, Varshney A, Singh AK, Dahiya P, Thakur JK, Sarin SK, Gupta D, Malhotra P, Mukherjee SK, Bhatnagar RK (2017) An RNAi-based high throughput screening assay to identify small molecule inhibitors of hepatitis B virus replication. J Biol Chem. 292:12577-12588.
• Dahiya P, Bhat DS and Thakur JK (2016) Expression of AtMed15 of Arabidopsis in yeast causes flocculation and increases ethanol production in yeast culture. Scientific Reports 6, 27967. Doi:10.1038/srep27967.(Covered in news media like The Telegraph, Nature India and Vigyan Prasar)
• Malik N*, Dwivedi N*, Singh AK, Parida SK, Agarwal P, Thakur JK, Tyagi AK (2016) An integrated genomic strategy delineates candidate Mediator genes regulating grain size and weight in rice. Scientific Reports6:23253. Doi10.1038/srep23253
• Nagulapalli M, Maji S*, Dwivedi N*, Dahiya P and Thakur JK (2016) Evolution of disorder in Mediator complex and its functional relevance. Nucleic Acids Res. 44: 1591-1612.

  (Awarded Best Paper Award in SubDIC category during BTISNet meeting, 2016)

• Samanta S Thakur JK (2015) Importance of Mediator complex in the regulation and integration of diverse signalling pathways in plants. Front. Plant Sci. 6:757 doi: 10.3389/fpls.2015.00757
• Thakur JK, Yadav A and Yadav G (2013) Molecular recognition by the KIX domain and its role in gene regulation. Nucleic. Acids Res. (In Press)
• Sharma S, Verma S, Vasudevan M, Samanta S, Thakur JK, Kulshreshtha R (2013) The interplay of HuR and mir-3134 in regulation of AU rich transcriptome. RNA Biol 10: 1283-1290.
• Thakur JK, Agarwal P, Parida SK, Bajaj D and Pasrija R (2013) Sequence and expression analyses of KIX domain proteins suggest their importance in seed development and determination of seed size in rice, and genome stability in Arabidopsis. Mol. Genet. Genomics 288: 329-346.
• Pasrija R, Thakur JK (2013) Tissue specific expression profile of Mediator genes in Arabidopsis. Plant Signal Behav 8: 5, e23983.
• Pasrija R, Thakur JK (2012) Analysis of differential expression of Mediator subunit genes in Arabidopsis. Plant Signal & Behav 7: 1676-1686.
• Naar AM and Thakur JK (2009) Nuclear Receptor-Like transcription factors in fungi. Genes & Development 23: 419-32.
• Thakur JK, Arthanari H, Yang F, Chau KH, Wagner G and Naar AM (2009) Mediator subunit Gal11p/MED15 is required for fatty acid-dependent gene activation by yeast transcription factor Oaf1p. J Biol Chem 284: 4422-4428.
• Thakur JK, Arthanari H, Yang F, Breger J, Fan X, Sun J, Li D, Struhl K, Moye-Rowley S, Mylonakis E, Cormack B, Wagner G and Naar AM (2008) A nuclear receptor-like pathway regulating multidrug resistance in fungi. Article in Nature 452: 604-609. [Covered in News & Views section by Andre Goffeau, Nature, 2008, 452: 541-542; in Perspective section by Monk and Goffeau, Science, 2008, 321: 367-369] [F1000 factor 9.8 Exceptional;]
• Thakur JK, Jain M, Tyagi AK and Khurana JP (2005) Exogenous auxin enhances the degradation of a light down-regulated and nuclear-localized OsiIAA1, an Aux/IAA protein from rice, via proteasome. Biochemica et Biophysica Acta 1730: 196-205.
• Thakur JK, Malik MR, Bhatt V, Reddy MK, Sopory SK, Tyagi AK and Khurana JP (2003) A POLYCOMB group gene of rice, OsiEZ1, codes for a nuclear-localized protein expressed preferentially in young seedlings and during reproductive development. Gene 314: 1-13.
• Thakur JK, Tyagi AK and Khurana JP (2001) OsIAA1, an Aux/IAA cDNA from Rice, and Its Expression as Influenced by Auxin and Light. DNA Research 8(5): 193-203.

• Thakur JK, Dahiya P and Bhat DS (2012) Recombinant microorganisms and uses thereof. [Provisional Indian Patent Application No. 3699/DEL/2012]

• Gene and Protein Engineering; Biotechnology Volume 5. Guest Editor Jitendra K. Thakur. Studium Press LLC, USA.

• Singh J and Thakur JK (2018) Photosynthesis and abiotic stress in plants. In Biotic and Abiotic Stress Tolerance in Plants. pp 27-46. Springer Nature Publications
• Samanta S and Thakur JK (2017) Characterization of Mediator complex and its associated proteins from rice. In Methods Mol Biol. 1629: 123-140. Springer Nature Publications
• Dwivedi N, Kumar V and Thakur JK (2017) Convergence of stress-induced hormone signaling pathways on a transcriptional co-factor. In Mechanism of Plant Hormone Signaling Under Stress. pp 285-317. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
• Samanta S and Thakur JK. Role of plant Mediator complex in stress response. In Elucidation of Abiotic Stress Signaling in Plants. Springer Science+Business Media LLC, New York, USA.
• Khurana JP, Tripathi L, Kumar D, Thakur JK and Meghna R. Malik. Cell Differentiation in Shoot Meristems - A Molecular Perspective.In Plant Biotechnology and Molecular Markers, In: Srivastava, P.S., Narula, A. and Srivastava, S. (eds.), Plant Biotechnology and Molecular Markers, pp. 366-385, Anamaya Publishers, New Delhi.
• Tyagi AK, Khuarana JP, Sharma AK, Mohanty A, Dhingra A, Raghuvanshi S, Mukhopadhyay A, Gupta V, Anand S, Kathuria H, Bhushan S, Thakur JK and Kumar D. Organ-specific gene expression and genetic transformation for improvement of rice. In: Khush, G.S., Brar, D.S. and Hardy, B. (eds), Advances in Rice Genetics, pp. 552-555, International Rice Research Institute, Manila.