PhD Thesis
| Title of Thesis |
University from which Ph.D. awarded |
Awarded Year |
| Studies on micropropagation of Holarrhena antidysenterica Wall-an important medicinal plant. |
Sri Venkateswara University,
Tirupati |
2004 |
| Areas of Research Interest |
| Understanding the mechanism and regulation of CO2 - concentrating mechanism in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.
In vitro propagation, phytochemical and pharmacological screening of rare, endangered and endemic medicinal and mangrove plants.
Generation and characterization of transgenic plants.
Generation of improved varieties of agricultural plants by classical breeding practices and Marker Assisted Selection. |
| Academic Achievements |
| Established the micro propagation protocol for important medicinal plant s like Holarrhena antidysenterica, Canthium parviflorum and Biophytum sensitivum, Strychnos wallichiana, Crotalaria hebecarpa using mature and seedling explants (Mallikarjuna and Rajendrudu, 2007; 2009; Chandrakala et al., 2014a,b,c,d,e ; 2013 and 2012).These protocols will be useful for conservation of threatened medicinal plants.
Phytochemical, pharmacological and genetic diversity studies have been carried out on tissue cultural plants and naturally living plant populations of Holarrhena, Canthium and Biophytum with an intention of knowing the adaptive biological diversity among various plants and also to find out phytochemical and pharmacological basis for their medicinal uses. This may help in finding new drug or formulation with new mode of activity (Chandrakala et al., 2014a, b, c, d, e ; 2013 and 2012).
While working in Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai, we have proved the interaction between DNA repair proteins (RAD51 & RAD52) with DNA replication proteins (MCM3 and 4) for restarting the stalled replication process after DNA break repair (Shukla et al., 2005). This study has implications in genome stability and cancer. Cloned and characterized the function of ortholog of Human Translin gene in Drosophila to know its function. This project is aimed to find out the functional diversification of protein, and its role in mRNA transport, fertility, DNA repair and neuronal cell fate determination (Suseendranathan et al., 2007). I am actively working in collaboration with Prof.B J Rao, senior scientist, Dept. of Biological Sciences, TIFR, Mumbai for unraveling the carbon concentration mechanism (CCM) in model eukaryotic cell Chalmydomonas reinhardtii. This project aims at understanding the evolutionary adaptation in aquatic plants in the context of increasing atmospheric CO2 concentration, Ozone depletion and penetration of UV radiation. Since five years we are working on this project and our current results are indicating that CCM mechanism is differently regulated by dark- light cycles and UV radiation. Genes related to CO2 recapture, maintenance is showing more expression in dark and bicarbonate transporter genes are showing more expression in the light (Srikanth et al., 2014) and this work was published in Plant Molecular biology with cover page description of results.
In addition to this, I am also working in collaboration with Dr M K Reddy of International Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB), New Delhi. In collaboration with ICGEB, we generated transgenic rice over expressing OSDREB2a transcription factor and the transgenic rice exhibited strong phenotype against dehydration and salinity stress. We have published this work in Biotechnology Letters and one PhD on the same problem has been awarded under the guidance of me (Mallikarjuna et al., 2011).
Currently we are working on in vitro propagation, secondary metabolite production, pharmacological screening, antimicrobial activity determination and genetic diversity analysis of Xylocarpus granatum and Xylocarpus molluccensis mangrove medicinal plants (under UGC major research project).
Recently DST-SERB has sanctioned Fast track Scheme for Young Scientists project for conservation and propagation of an important critically endangered plant Strychnos colubrina. |
| No. of Books Published and Edited |
1 |
| No. of research articles published/presented since the inception: |
|
Research Students Information
|
Guided Successfully |
Submitted |
Presently Guiding |
| Ph.D |
2 |
11 |
8 |
| M.Phill |
1 |
|
-
|
Journals For Details of PublicationsClick here|
| National Journals |
2 |
| International Journals |
20 |
Conferences
| Conference National |
5 |
| Conference International |
7 |
| Research Collaboration |
| I am working in collaboration with UCSI University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for phytochemical exploration of mangrove plants. |
Major/Minor Research Projects Conducted
| Title |
Date |
Funding |
Amount(in Lakhs) |
Project Summery |
| 1. In vitro propagation and conservation, antimicrobial screening and genetic diversity analysis of a critically endangered medicinal plant Strychnos wallichiana Steud Ex DC. DST-SERB FAST TRACK scheme for young scientists. No.SB/FT/LS-287/2012, Dated 02-05-2013. |
May02,2013 |
Major research project and Young scientist project |
20,92,000 |
Click here |
| 2. In vitro propagation and conservation, antimicrobial screening and genetic diversity analysis of an endangered mangrove medicinal plant Xylocarpus granatum. UGC - Major research project F.No.42-949/2013 (SR), Dated 14-03-2013 |
March14,2013 |
Major research project |
3,05,000 |
Click here |
|
