Dr. Senthil-Kumar Muthappa
Scientist-V
- 91-11-26741612,14,17 Ext. - 229, 26735229, Fax: 91-11-26741658
- skmuthappa@nipgr.ac.in
Profile
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.
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
Year
Fellowships/Awards
2022
Fellow, National Academy of Sciences India (NASI)
2021
Fellow, Indian Society for Plant Physiology (FISPP), New Delhi, India
2020
J.C. Bose Gold Medal Award of Indian Society for Plant Physiology
2020
Member, National Academy of Sciences India (NASI)
2020
Fellow, The National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS), India
2015
DBT Innovative Young Biotechnologist Award
2015
NAAS Associateship, The National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS), India
Ramalingaswami Re-entry Fellowship, Department of Biotechnology, New Delhi.
Ramanujan Fellowship, Department of Science and Technology, New Delhi [fellowship not availed].
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.
Current Members
Miss. Anita Kumari
Research Associate
Research Project: Investigating the role of Cicer arietinum SWEET genes in drought modulated dry root rot disease defense response
- anitak@nipgr.ac.in
Miss. Durgadevi Adimoolam
Junior Research Fellow
Screening of chickpea germplasm accessions for dry root rot disease using paper blot and sick pot methods
- anupriya190@gmail.com
Mr. Dulla Sandeep
Junior Research Fellow
Characterization of chickpea germplasm resource to accelerate genomics-assisted crop improvement.
- sandeepdulla@nipgr.ac.in
Miss. Neha
Technical Assistant
Stress Combination and their interaction in plant database (SCIPDb)
- neha107@nipgr.ac.in
Dr. Gopal Banerjee
Shri Shankar Acharya
Senior Technical Officer
Responsibilities: Maintenance of computational tools developed by the laboratory and overall day to day laboratory management
- shankar.acharya@nipgr.ac.in
Miss.Shilpa Mukherjee
Ph. D. Students
Dissecting the key mechanistic role of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and its associated SynComs in providing protection against combined dry root rot disease under drought conditions in chickpea
- shilpamukherjee@nipgr.ac.in
Miss. Suman saini
Ph.D. Student
Elucidating the role of biochemical defence in dry root rot resistance in chickpea.
- sumansaini0123@nipgr.ac.in
Mr. Shubhashish Ranjan
Ph.D. Student
Characterization of genetic determinants of dry root rot disease resistance in chickpea under abiotic stress
- shubhashishranjan@nipgr .ac .in
Miss. Anjali
Ph.D. Student
Role of a SWEET transporter(s) in plant-pathogen interaction
- anjali@nipgr.ac.in
Mr. Aswin Reddy Chilakala
Ph.D. Student
Combating dry root rot disease of chickpea by expressing antifungal proteins and through genetic enhancement
- swinchilakala@nipgr.ac.in
Mr. Rishabh Mirchandani
Ph.D. Student
Exploring non-host disease resistance to Macrophomina phaseolina
- rishabhmirchandani@nipgr.ac.in
Mr. Sunder Singh Solanki
Field cum Laboratory Attendant
- sundersolanki82@gmail.com
Mr. Rahim Hussain Tarafdar
Field cum Laboratory Attendant
- hossan.rahim2015@gmail.com
Former Lab Members
Miss. Komal Vitthalrao Mali
PhD Student (Aug 2018- Nov 2024)
Studies on Rhizoctonia bataticola – chickpea interaction under drought stress
- malikomal92@nipgr.ac.in
Mr. Vadivel Murugan Irulappan
PhD Student (July 2015-Mar 2021)
Understanding Mechanisms of Tolerance to Combined Drought and Pathogen infection in Chickpea Using Transcriptomic and Gene Silencing Approaches
- tamilan.vadivel@gmail.com
Ms. Aanchal Choudhary
Elucidating molecular basis of tailored defense response employed by Arabidopsis thaliana against combined biotic and abiotic stresses by functional genomics approach
- aanchal@nipgr.ac.in
Resources
Stress Combinations and their Interactions in Plants (SCIP) Database – http://223.31.159.3/plant_complete/index_orangesunset.php and https://db.nipgr.ac.in/plant_complete/index_orangesunset.php
VIGS database – https://vigs-database.btiscience.org/index.php
pssRNAit: Designing Effective and Specific Plant RNAi siRNAs with Genome-wide Off-target Gene Assessment – https://www.zhaolab.org/pssRNAit/
Selected Publications
Research articles
Priya, P., Patil, M., Pandey, P., Singh, A., Babu, V.S. and Senthil-Kumar, M., 2023. Stress combinations and their interactions in plants database: a one-stop resource on combined stress responses in plants. The Plant Journal, 116(4), pp.1097-1117. https://doi.org/10.1111/tpj.16497
Chilakala, A.R., Pandey, P., Durgadevi, A., Kandpal, M., Patil, B.S., Rangappa, K., Reddy, P.C.O., Ramegowda, V. and Senthil Kumar, M., 2023. Drought attenuates plant responses to multiple rhizospheric pathogens: A study on a dry root rot-associated Disease complex in chickpea fields. Field Crops Research, 298, p.108965.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fcr.2023.108965
Choudhary A and Senthil-Kumar M (2022) Drought attenuates plant defence against bacter ial pathogens by suppressing the expression of CBP60g/SARD1 during combined stress. Plant Cell & Environment 45(4):1127-1145.https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/pce.14275
Irulappan V, Kandpal M, Saini K, Rai A, Ranjan A, Sinharoy S, Senthil-Kumar M (2022) Drought stress exacerbates fungal colonization and endodermal invasion and dampens defense responses to increase dry root rot in chickpea. Molecular Plant Microbe Interactions, https://apsjournals.apsnet.org/doi/10.1094/MPMI-07-21-0195-F
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 https://doi.org/10.1094/MPMI-05-19-0117-R
Senthil-Kumar, M., Mysore, K. Tobacco rattle virus-based virus-induced gene silencing in Nicotiana benthamiana. Nature Protocol 9, 1549-1562 (2014).https://doi.org/10.1038/nprot.2014.092
Saxena S, Pal L, Naik J, Singh Y, Verma PK, Chattopadhyay D, Pandey A (2023) The R2R3-MYB-SG7 transcription factor CaMYB39 orchestrates surface phenylpropanoid metabolism and pathogen resistance in chickpea. New Phytologist doi:10.1111/nph.18758
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. https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.111.093245
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. https://doi.org/10.1104/pp.111.189217
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. https://doi.org/10.1104/pp.111.189217
Sharma NK, Gupta SK, Dwivedi V, Chattopadhyay D (2020) Lignin deposition in chickpea root xylem under drought. Plant Signal. Behav. 15(6):e1754621
For all publications visit: https://scholar.google.co.in/citations?user=vmbK4UMAAAAJ&hl=en
Review articles
Choudhary, A. and Senthil-Kumar, M., 2024. Drought: A context-dependent damper and aggravator of plant diseases. Plant, Cell & Environment. https://doi.org/10.1111/pce.14863
Pandey, P., Patil, M., Priya, P. and Senthil-Kumar, M., 2024. When two negatives make a positive: the favorable impact of the combination of abiotic stress and pathogen infection on plants. Journal of Experimental Botany, 75(3), pp.674-688. https://doi.org/10.1111/pce.14863
Fatima, U., Anjali, A. and Senthil-Kumar, M., 2022. AtSWEET11 and AtSWEET12: The twin traders of sucrose. Trends in Plant Science, 27(10), pp.958-960. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tplants.2022.06.009
Rai, A., Irulappan, V. and Senthil-Kumar, M., 2022. Dry root rot of chickpea: a disease favored by drought. Plant Disease, 106(2), pp.346-356. https://doi.org/10.1094/PDIS-07-21-1410-FE
Senthil-Kumar M and Mysore KS (2013) Nonhost resistance against bacterial pathogens – retrospects and prospects. Annual Review of Phytopathology 51: 19.1-19.21.https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-phyto-082712-102319
Senthil-Kumar M and Mysore KS (2011) New dimensions of using VIGS for plant functional genomics. Trends in Plant Science 16(12): 656-665. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tplants.2011.08.006
Research covered in news media
Podcast Interview (06/July/2024): https://open.spotify.com/episode/0chGqOfF6H16q4YDxELoAI
Research Matters press release (23/Mar/2020): Chickpea’s trick can help mustard fight fungi
American Phytopathological Society a press release (29/Jan/2020): Can chickpea genes save mustard seeds from blight disease?
The Hindu BusinessLine story (9/Feb/2020): Fighting fungal pest: Chickpea could give mustard a tip or two
Press release IS-MPMI InterConnections on student achievements (12/Mar/2020): Student project reveals a strategy for managing Alternaria blight through nonhost resistance