Molecular studies on rice grain/seed development

(goal: increase yield and protein content of rice grain)

• Staff Scientist IV, NIPGR (2018 – present)
• Staff Scientist III, NIPGR (2014 – 2018)
• Scientist II, NIPGR (2011 - 2014)
• Research Scientist, Center of Excellence, Department of Plant Molecular Biology, Delhi University (2010 – 11)
• Ph. D., Department of Plant Molecular Biology, Delhi University (2003-09)
• M. Sc., Department of Plant Molecular Biology, Delhi University (2001-03)
• B. Sc. (Botany-Hons.), Gargi College, Delhi University (1998-2001)

• Travel grant award by American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB) to attend Plant Biology 2018 (not availed)
• Selected for the 1st EMBO research leadership course in India by DBT India Alliance (2018)
• SERB 'Women Excellence Award' (2013) by Science and Research Engineering Board, India and was felicitated with the same on Women's Day, 2013 at the Department of Science and Technology, New Delhi
• INSA Young Scientist's Award (2012)
• Special mention in Indian Women Scientist's Association (IWSA) newsletter (December 2012)
• Junior and senior research fellowships from UGC (2001)
• President of Gargi College Botanical Society (2000)

Rice is a staple food of majority of the world’s population, including India. It is the source of livelihood for many farmers, and is an economically important crop plant. Increasing population, and the consequences thereof, are exerting a pressure on the land available for rice cultivation. Scientifically calculated predictions say that rice yield needs to be increased without a corresponding increment in the cultivated area. Rice contributes to 40% of the total protein intake in India, despite having a low protein content (up to 10%). Hence, the plant can be used to address the problem of malnutrition. Since the edible part of rice crop is seed/grain (diagram on left), research on the same is extremely essential to obtain food security.

Rice seed development has been categorized by us into five stages. Each stage has distinct morphological changes. Transcriptome analysis by microarray has highlighted the genes and pathways responsible for the processes occurring in each stage. Transcriptome analysis by RNAseq on the same stages, in two varieties of rice, one with large seed and the other with small seed, has shown the causes of grain size increment. miRNA analyses of all these tissues indicates that they play an important role in controlling seed size. Gene families such as those encoding for C2H2 zinc finger transcription factors, seed storage proteins and DLN repressors have been identified by us in rice. The functional role of many such transcriptional activators/repressors is being/has been elucidated in the lab. One such example is a NAC transcription factor which is good for the formation of sticky rice. Genes whose function in seed development has been characterized, especially ones responsible for size increment or seed storage protein synthesis will eventually be used for rice crop improvement.

If your thoughts are in sync with above mentioned research and goals, please drop in a mail.

Present

• Ankit Verma                    Ph. D. student
• Priya Jaiswal                   Ph. D. student
• Richa Priyadarshini          Ph. D. student

Past

• Iny E. Mathew                 Ph. D. student
• Sweta Das                       Ph. D. student
• Arunima Mahto                Ph. D. student
• Naveen Malik                   Ph. D. student
• Rajeev Ranjan                 Ph. D. student
• Ankur Vichitra                 RA
• Shubhra Rastogi              RA
• Rashmi Renu Sahoo         SRF
• Akanksha Panwar            SRF
• Purnima Singh                 SRF
• Megha Varshney               SRF
• Sanjoli Jain                      JRF
• Swarnmala Samal             JRF
• Veena K. Sinha                 JRF

• Singh P, Mathew IE, Verma A, Tyagi A K, Agarwal P# (2019) Analysis of Rice Proteins with DLN Repressor Motif/S. Int J Mol Sci 20:1600 (# - corresponding author)
• Mathew IE, Agarwal P# (2018) May the fittest protein evolve: favoring the plant-specific origin and expansion of NAC transcription factors. BioEssays 40:e1800018 (# - corresponding author)
• Mathew IE, Das S, Mahto A, Agarwal P# (2016) Three rice NAC transcription factors heteromerize and are associated with seed size. Front Plant Sci 7:1638. (# - corresponding author)
• Agarwal P, Parida S K, Raghuvanshi S, Kapoor S, Khurana P, Khurana J P, Tyagi A K (2016) Rice improvement through genome-based functional analysis and molecular breeding in India. Rice (N Y) 9 (1):1.
• Agarwal P, Parida S K, Mahto A, Das S, Mathew I E, Malik N, Tyagi A K (2014) Expanding frontiers in plant transcriptomics in aid of functional genomics and molecular breeding. Biotechnol J 9:1480-1491.
• Sharma R*, Agarwal P*, Ray S, Deveshwar P, Sharma P, Sharma N, Nijhawan A, Jain M, Singh A K, Singh V P, Khurana J P, Tyagi A K, Kapoor S. (2012) Expression dynamics of metabolic and regulatory components across stages of panicle and seed development in indica rice. Funct Integr Genomics 12:229-248 (*-equal contribution)
• Agarwal P, Kapoor S, Tyagi A K. (2011) Transcription factors regulating the progression of monocot and dicot seed development. BioEssays 33:189-202.
• Agarwal P, Arora R, Ray S, Singh A K, Singh V P, Takatsuji H, Kapoor S, Tyagi A K. (2007) Genome-wide identification of C2H2 zinc-finger gene family in rice and their phylogeny and expression analysis. Plant Mol Biol 65:467-485
• Daware A, Das S, Srivastava R, Badoni S, Singh AK, Agarwal P, Parida SK, Tyagi AK (2016) An efficient strategy combining SSR markers- and advanced QTL-seq-driven QTL mapping unravels candidate genes regulating grain weight in rice. Front Plant Sci 7:1535.
• Malik N, Dwivedi N, Singh A K, Parida S K, Agarwal P, Thakur J K, Tyagi A K (2016) An integrated genomic strategy delineates candidate mediator genes regulating grain size and weight in rice. Sci Rep 6:23253.
• Malik N, Agarwal P, Tyagi A K (2017)  Emerging functions of multi-protein complex Mediator with special emphasis on plants. Crit Rev Biochem Mol Biol (doi: 10.1080/10409238.2017.1325830).
• Jain M, Nijhawan A, Arora R, Agarwal P, Ray S, Sharma P, Kapoor S, Tyagi A K, Khurana J P. (2007) F-box proteins in rice: Genome-wide analysis, classification, spatial and temporal gene expression during panicle and seed development, and regulation by light and abiotic stress. Plant Physiol 143:1467-1483.

• Mahto A, Mathew IE and Agarwal P (2017). Decoding the transcriptome of rice seed during development. In Advances in Seed Biology, J. C. Jimenez-Lopez (Ed.), 25, InTech, Spain.
• Agarwal P, Parida S, Kothari KS, Sharma G, Baranwal V, Kapoor S and Tyagi A. (2012). Transcriptome resources for function analysis and genetic enhancement of rice. In International Dialogue on Designer Rice for Future: Perception and Prospects EA Siddiq eds., 1-25, Patancheru, India
• Kapoor S, Khurana R, Baranwal V, Agarwal P, Ray S, and Tyagi AK (2011). Genome-wide strategies for genetic enhancement of rice. Proceedings of National Symposium on Genomics and Crop Improvement 2011 (In Press), Hyderabad, India.
• Tyagi AK, Khurana JP, Khurana P, Kapoor S, Singh VP, Singh AK, Thakur JK, Gupta V, Anand S, Vij S, Jain M, Ray S, Agarwal P, Arora R, Sharma P, Mukerjee S, Nijhawan A, Giri J, Khurana R (2007). Expression and functional analysis of rice genes involved in reproductive development and stress response. Rice Genetics V, 301-334, IRRI, Philippines.

• Patent titled: "Nucleic acid sequences from rice involved in seed development and uses thereof". Inventor; Tyagi AK, Kapoor S, Agarwal P; Patent File, 160/DEL/2007