Career
- Staff scientist: NIPGR, New Delhi (June 2013 onwards)
- Post-Doctoral Fellow: Noble Research Institute, Ardmore, Oklahoma, USA (Jan 2007 to June 2013)
- Research Associate: University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore (June 2006 to Jan 2007)
Fellowships and Awards
- National Academy of Agricultural Sciences Associateship
- DBT Innovative Young Biotechnologist Award – 2015
- Ramalingaswami Re-entry Fellowship, Department of Biotechnology, New Delhi.
- Ramanujan Fellowship, Department of Science and Technology, New Delhi [fellowship not availed].
Research Interests
Stress interaction and combined stresses in plants
Due to changing climatic factors, plants are expected to combat the unique combination of stresses. Plants simultaneously exposed to a combination of stresses (for example, drought and pathogens) are expected to employ altogether a different &tailored response for combating them compared to those independently exposed to individual stresses. Such unique adaptive strategy used by plants is an exciting area of research.
Our lab uses Arabidopsis thaliana as model plant and attempts to capture the unique genes involved in disease resistance of these plants against Pseudomonas syringae pathovars (host & nonhost pathogens) under drought stress. Also, we study the interaction of moisture stress with fungal pathogen infection in chickpea and Ralstonia solanacearum infection in tomato plants. We employ virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) tool to investigate the functional relevance of candidate genes.
Findings from this project will enable understanding not only the nature of stress interaction, but also the specific defense responses of combined stressed plants against pathogens.
Nonhost resistance of plants against pathogens
Plants are regularly exposed to wide variety of disease-causing pathogens in their environment. Plants have evolved various defense mechanisms, both active and passive to combat pathogen attack. R-gene mediated defense limits the host range of a pathogen to the member of a single species and is often overcome by the pathogen. In contrast, nonhost resistance is a response to all races of a particular pathogen and occurs in all cultivars of a nonhost plant species. We are particularly interested in understanding nonhost resistance of model plant A. thaliana against few bacterial pathogens that cause disease in crop plants (for example, tomato, and beans). Our lab also has a specific interest in identifying the nonhost plants of Begomoviruses and understanding the resistance mechanism operating in such nonhost plants against the viruses.
Interested in joining the lab?
Motivated young researchers who would like to join the lab to work on prediction of the occurrence and impact of stress combinations [drought-pathogen stress interaction] by employing simulation and crop modelling related tools are welcome to contact the PI. Researchers with strong statistical, geoinformatics and bioinformatics skills can apply through DBT-BIOCARE or INSPIRE or CSIR senior RA or DST women scientist or DBT-RA or open lab positions.
Group Members
Current Lab Members | |
CSIR-Senior Research Associate [pool officer scheme] | |
 | Dr. Ranjita Sinha |
 | Dr. Mahesh Patil |
Research Associate - II | |
 | Dr. Piyush Priya |
Ph. D. Students | |
 | Ms. Aarzoo Qamar |
 | Ms.Urooj Fatima |
 | Ms. Aanchal Choudhary |
 | Mr. Sandeep Kumar Dixit |
 | Mr. Vadivel Murugan Irulappan |
 | Miss. Anjali |
Project Associate-I | |
 | Ms. Jyoti Singh |
Field cum Laboratory Attendant | |
 | Mr. Sunder Singh Solanki |
 | Mr. Rahim Hussain Tarafdar |
Former Lab Members | |
 | Dr. Bendangchuchang Longchar |
 | Dr. Tarinee Phukan |
 | Ms. Christina Nilofer |
 | Dr. Aarti Gupta |
 | Dr. Sarita |
 | Dr. Nidhi Singh |
![](/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/rashmi_maurya_SKM.png"") | Miss. Rashmi Maurya |
 | Dr. Prachi Pandey |
 | Mr. Upendra Bhele |
 | Miss. Reena Prajapati |
 | Ms. Anjugam Paramanantham |
 | Mr. Amit Kumar |
 | Ms. Karishma Pasha |
 | Dr. Aiswarya Baruah |
 | Mr. Dharanipathi Kamalachandran |
 | Dr. Aarti Gupta |
Former Trainees | |
Project Trainees (Undergraduate and Post graduate) | |
Miss. Swetha Sivaramakrishnan | |
Miss. Nishtha Rawat | |
Mr. Avinash Kumar Jha | |
Ms. Anjugam Paramanantham | |
Mr. Muthuramalingam Pandian | |
Mr. NR Siva Shanmugam | |
Miss. N Kavya | |
Science academies (IAS, INSA & NASI) summer research fellows | |
Miss. Dipanjali Ray | |
Dr. Zahoor Ahmad | |
Dr. Rex Arunraj | |
Mr. Masthan Basha | |
Miss. Rakshana Palanisamy | |
Professional trainees from institutions | |
Selected Publications
- Fatima U, Bhorali P, Senthil-Kumar M (2019) Morpho-pathological and global transcriptomic analysis reveals the robust nonhost resistance responses in chickpea interaction with Alternaria brassicae. Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions doi: 10.1094/MPMI-05-19-0117-R
- Senthil-Kumar M and Mysore KS (2014) Tobacco rattle virus–based virus-induced gene silencing in Nicotiana benthamiana. Nature Protocols 9, 1549–1562
- Senthil-Kumar M and Mysore KS (2013) Nonhost resistance against bacterial pathogens - retrospects and prospects. Annual Review of Phytopathology 51: 19.1-19.21.
- Rojas CM, Senthil-Kumar M, Wang K, Ryu CM, Kaundal A and Mysore KS (2012) Glycolate oxidase plays a major role during nonhost resistance responses by modulating reactive oxygen species mediated signal transduction pathways. The Plant Cell 24(1): 336-52.
- Keri Wang#, Senthil-Kumar M#, Choong-Min Ryu, Li Kang and Mysore KS (2012) Phytosterols play a key role in plant innate immunity against bacterial pathogens by regulating nutrient efflux into the apoplast. Plant Physiology 158(4): 1789-802. #equal contribution.
- Senthil-Kumar M and Mysore KS (2012) d-ornithine aminotransferase and proline dehydrogenase genes play a role in nonhost disease resistance by regulating pyrroline-5-carboxylate metabolism-induced hypersensitive response. Plant Cell and Environment 35(7): 1329-43.
- Senthil-Kumar M and Mysore KS (2011) New dimensions of using VIGS for plant functional genomics. Trends in Plant Science 16(12): 656-665.
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