Download PRADEEP KUMAR BURMA, Ph.D Designation Associate Professor

PRADEEP KUMAR BURMA, Ph.D
Designation
Associate Professor
Address
Department of Genetics
University of Delhi South Campus
Benito Juarez Road
New Delhi 110 021, INDIA
Tel: 11-24115221
Fax: 11-24112761
E-mail: [email protected]
[email protected]
Date of Birth
06. 01. 1961
EDUCATION
Qualification
University
Year
Ph.D (Zoology)
Banaras Hindu University
1989
M.Sc. (Zoology)
Banaras Hindu University
1982
B.Sc (Hons. School)
Banaras Hindu University
1980
CAREER PROFILE
Organization
Year
Position
Department of Genetics
University of Delhi South Campus
New Delhi
June 2006 onwards
Associate Professor
University of Delhi
New Delhi
Feb 2012 – Oct 2012
Joint Proctor
Department of Genetics
University of Delhi South Campus
New Delhi
Feb 2002- May 2006
Reader
Department of Genetics
1993-2002
University of Delhi South Campus
New Delhi
Lecturer
Department of Biophysics
Indian Institute of Science
Bangalore
Research Associate
1990-93
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AWARDS
1. Received ISPMB Visiting Scientist Award for 2001 (did not avail).
2. University Gold Medal, Banaras Hindu University for first position in M.Sc. Zology
examination.
3. Certificate of Merit of Faculty of Science, Banaras Hindu University for first position in
M.Sc (Prev.) Zoology examination.
TEACHING
1. I teach the following papers at the Master’s level at the University of Delhi South Campus
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
Concepts of Genetics
Regulation of gene expression
Developmental Biology
Practical course on Recombinant DNA Techniques
2. Have also taught the following papers at the Master’s level at the University of Delhi South
Campus
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
v.
Cytogenetics and Genome Organisation
Introduction of Gene Expression
Drosophila genetics
Practical courses on Drosophila Genetics
Developmental Biology
Genetics
Environmental Biology
Genetics
Genetics
Biochemistry
3. Few lectures on Developmental Biology delivered every year to the Ph.D students of
National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi.
4. Resource person at workshops held by Delhi Association for Science Education (DASE) for
school teachers and DPS society.
5. Resource person in several INSPIRE camps for school children.
6. Held interactions and delivered talks under the auspices of ‘XV Genetic Congress Trust’ to
school children e.g. APEEJAY School, Pitampura, Andhra School, Karol Bagh.
7. Taught in a workshop organized for biology teachers of schools at Sadhu Vaswani
International School for Girls, New Delhi. April 2010 The workshop was held to discuss the
topics of biotechnology introduced in the class XIIth curriculum of schools.
8. Resource person in workshops held in different colleges and departments of Delhi University
like at Maitreyi College, Daulat Ram College, Bhaskaracharya College, Venkateshwara
College, Department of Zoology.
9. Taught in a workshop organized for biology teachers of schools at Sadhu Vaswani
International School for Girls, New Delhi. April 2010 The workshop was held to discuss the
topics of biotechnology introduced in the class XIIth curriculum of schools.
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10. Regularly teach at the Staff College, JNU and at the Summer School, Life Sciences, JNU.
11. Have taught topics on ‘Gene Expression and Regulation’ to M.Sc. students of Molecular
Human Genetics at Banaras Hindu University and Gwalior University
12. Have taught course on ‘Concepts of Genetics’ to the students of M.Sc. Biotechnology at the
Jawaharlal Nehru University.
13. Have given lectures on topics in ‘Gene Expression and Regulation’ to college teachers and
M.Sc. students in a DST organized workshop at Agharkar Research Institute, Pune.
RESEARCH



Ph.D at Banaras Hindu University (BHU) under Prof. SC Lakhotia
Postdoctoral at Indian Institute of Science (IISc) with Prof. Samir Brahmachari
Research at UDSC in collaboration with Prof. Deepak Pental
Research activities at UDSC
1. Development of transgenic technologies (barnase-barstar system) for heterosis breeding in
cotton.
i.
In this program supported by NIMITLI-CSIR, we identified promoters which express in
the tapetum of cotton. A comparative microarray analysis of transcripts expressed in
anthers with that in rest of the bud (where the anther has been dissected out) helped us
identify several anther specific transcripts. Tapetum specific expressions of these genes
are being currently studied. The promoters of some of these candidate genes have also
being isolated by Genome Walking and their expression patterns are being analyzed by
developing transgenics.
ii.
Male sterile transgenic lines in cotton have been developed in cotton have bee developed
with barnase and barstar constructs developed with tapetum specific promoters TA29
These constructs have been successfully used to develop male sterile and restorer lines in
Indian oilseed mustard.
iii.
We are also in the process of characterizing two tapetum specific promoters A9 from
Arabidopsis thaliana and TA29 from tobacco.
2. Development of transgenics in cotton with cry1Ac gene for resistance against insect pests.
i.
This work supported by a project from DBT envisaged developing transgenics in cotton
with cry1Ac gene. However, in spite of developing over 400 independent transgenic
lines in cotton we failed to develop a high expressing line with a normal phenotype. We
observed that majority of the lines show extremely low levels of expression and those
with high levels of expression were always abnormal. From our observations in cotton
and detailed experiments carried out in tobacco we demonstrated the expression of Bt
endotoxin Cry1Ac has detrimental effect on the in vitro regeneration as well as in
vivo growth and development of tobacco and cotton transgenics. I have initiated a
study to understand the reasons for the same.
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ii.
We also demonstrated that targeting the Cry1Ac protein to the chloroplast alleviated the
problem to a certain extent, which allows one to recover plants with high levels of
expression.
iii.
Experiments are being carried out to analyze the reason(s) for the same. By a series of
comparative analysis we have identified the domain of Cry1Ac protein that is probably
responsible for this adverse effect. We are now trying to identify interacting partners.
3. Analyzing strategies to improve transgene expression in plants.
i.
We have carried out a comparative analysis of endogenous promoters from Arabidopsis
and CaMV 35S to identify promoters which could be used to achieve higher levels of
transgene expression.
ii.
Experiments are currently being carried out to evaluate the role of intron-mediated
enhancement of transgene expression in dicotyledonous plants.
iii.
The role of codon usage in transgene expression is also being critically analysed.
iv.
A synthetic 5’UTR has been identified in the laboratory that can increase expression
driven by CaMV 35S promoters by several folds.
4. Development of synthetic promoters to circumvent the problem of transgene silencing.
i.
Work from our laboratory has demonstrated that synthetic promoters can be developed by
placing identified cis-elements of a known promoter in a variant stretch of DNA. Using this
strategy a set of functionally equivalent synthetic CaMV 35S promoters with reduced
homology between themselves was developed. Using a reported silencing line (the 271 locus)
for the 35S promoter in tobacco we further demonstrated that silencing of these synthetic
promoters were significantly delayed in contrast to the wild type 35S promoter.
5. Transgenics in Indian oilseed mustard (Brassica juncea).
i.
Successfully developed transgenic technologies (barnase-barstar system) for heterosis
breeding. These transgenic lines have undergone multi-site open field trials. Toxicological
and equivalence tests have to be carried out for further deregulation of the event.
ii.
Trasgenic line expressing antisense RNA to the fad2 gene has been developed in ‘zero’
erucic acid line, VH486. The fatty acid obtained from this line if nutritionally superior having
high oleic (`75%) and low linoleic acid (~10%) content. Studies of this oil on the lipid
metabolism in model systems has to be carried out before its commercial use.
iii.
Development of herbicide (Basta, 2,4D, chlorsulfuron and imazethapyr) resistant transgenics
in Indian oilseed mustard (Brassica juncea).
6. Others.
i.
A novel four-element based gene tagging system in Arabidopsisto minimize the number of
starter lines required to generate genome-wide insertions for saturation mutagenesis.
ii.
Cre-lox P based system for removal of marker genes from Brassica juncea at high frequency.
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PUBLICATIONS
Research papers published in Refereed/Peer Reviewed Journal
1. Mehrotra AK, Bhullar S and Burma PK (2014) Development of intron-containing barnase gene
(barnase-int) encoding a toxic protein to facilitate its cloning in bacterial cells Journal of Plant
Biochemistry and Biotechnology 23:435-439
2. Verma N and Burma PK (2014) A method to synthesize cDNA constructs by based
recombinational cloning American Journal of Molecular Biology 4:16-19
3. Agarwal P, Garg V, Gautam T, Pillai B, Kanoria S and Burma PK (2013) A study on the the
influence of different promoter and 5’UTR (URM) cassettes from Arabidopsis thaliana on the
expression level of the reporter gene β-glucuronidase in tobacco and cotton Transgenic Research
doi: 10.1007/s1248-613-9757-9
4. Kumar P, Pental D and Burma PK (2013) Structural and transcriptional characterization of rbcS
genes of cotton (Gossypiumhirsutum) Plant Molecular Biology Reporter 31:1176-1183 doi:
10.1007/s11105-013-0576-1
5. Kanoria S and Burma PK (2012) A 28nt long synthetic 5UTR (synJ) as an enhancer of transgene
expression in dicotyledonous plants BMC Biotechnology 12:85 doi:10.1186/1472-6750-12-85
6. Rawat P, Singh AK, Ray K, Chaudhary B, Kumar S, Gautam T, Kanoria S, Kaur G, Kumar P,
Pental D and Burma PK (2011) Detrimental effect of expression of Btendotoxin Cry1Ac on in
vitro regeneration, in vivo growth and development of tobacco and cotton transgenics Journal of
Bioscience 36(2): 363-376.
7. Bhullar S, Datta S and Burma PK (2011) Delayed trans-inactivation of synthetic domain 35S
promoters by “tobacco 271 locus” due to reduced sequence homology Plant Molecular Biology
Reporter 29: 1-11.
8. Jagannath A, Sodhi YS, Gupta V, Mukhopadhyay A, Arumugam N, Singh I, Rohatgi S, Burma
PK, Pradhan AK, Pental D (2011) Eliminating expression of erucic-acid encoding loci allows the
identification of ‘hidden’ QTL contributing to oil quality fractions and oil content in Brassica
juncea (Indian Mustard) Theoretical and Applied Genetics 122: 1091-1103.
9. Bhullar S, S Chakravarthy, D Pental and P K Burma. 2009. Analysis of Promoter Activity in
Transgenic Plant by Normalizing with Reference Gene: Anomalies Due to Influence of Test
Promoter on Reference Promoter.Journal of Bioscience. 34(6): 953-962.
10. Rawat P, S Kumar, D Pental and P K Burma. 2009. Inactivation of a transgene due to
transposition of insertion sequence (IS136) of Agrobacterium tumefaciens. Journal of
Bioscience. 34(2): 199-202.
11. Rawat P, K Ray, D Pental and P K Burma. 2008. Mutant acetolactate synthase gene conferring
resistance to the herbicide “imazethapyr” is an efficient in vitro selection marker for genetic
transformation of cotton. Current Science. 95(10): 1454-1458.
12. Kavita P and P K Burma. 2008. A comparative analysis of sGFP and GUS protein encoding
genes as reporter system for studying temporal expression profiles of promoters. Journal of
Bioscience. 33(3): 337-343.
13. Ray K, N C Bisht, D Pental and P K Burma. 2007. Development of barnase/barstartransgenics
for hybrid seed production in Indian oilseed mustard (Brassica juncea l. Czern&Coss) using a
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mutant acetolactate synthase gene conferring resistance to imidazolinone-based herbicide
‘Pursuit’. Current Science. 93(10): 1390-1396.
14. Bhullar S, S Datta, S Advani, S Chakravarthy, T Gautam, D Pental and P K Burma. 2007.
Functional analysis of Cauliflower Mosaic Virus 35S promoter: re-evaluation of the role of
subdomains B5, B4 and B5 in promoter activity. Plant Biotechnology Journal. 5: 696-708.
15. Bisht N C, A Jagannath, P K Burma, A Pradhan and D Pental. 2007. Retransformation of a male
sterile barnase line with the barstar gene as an efficient alternative method to identify male
sterile-restorer combinations for heterosis breeding. Plant Cell Reports. 26: 727-733.
16. Arumugam N V Gupta, A Jagannath, A Mukhopadhyay, A K Pradhan, P K Burma and D Pental.
2007. A passage through in vitro culture leads to efficient production of marker-free transgenic
plants in Brassica juncea using the Cre-loxP system. Transgenic Research. 16: 703-712.
17. Panjabi P, P K Burma and D Pental. 2006. Use of the transposable element Ac/Ds in conjunction
with Spm/dSpm for gene tagging allows extensive genome coverage with a limited number of
starter lines: Functional analysis of a four-element system in A. thaliana.Molecular Genetics and
Genomics. 276: 533-543.
18. Kumar S, A Birah, B Chaudhary, P K Burma, G P Gupta and D Pental. 2005. Plant codon
optimized cry genes of Bacillus thuringeniensis can be expressed as soluble proteins in E. coli
BL21 Codon Plus strain as NusA- Cry protein fusions. Journal of Invertebrate Pathology. 88:
83-86.
19. Bisht N C, A Jagannath, V Gupta, P K Burma and D Pental. 2004. A two gene- two promoter
system for enhanced expression of a restorer gene (Barstar) and development of improved
fertility restorer lines for hybrid seed production in crop plants.Molecular Breeding. 14: 129-144.
20. Sivaraman I, N Arumugam, Y S Sodhi, V Gupta, A Mukhopadhyay, A K Pradhan, P K Burma
and D Pental. 2004. Development of high oleic and low linoleic acid transgenics in a zero erucic
acid Brassica juncea L. (Indian Mustard) line by antisense suppression of the fad2 gene.
Molecular Breeding. 13: 365-375.
21. Bisht N C, P K Burma and D Pental. 2004. Development of 2,4-D resistant lines in Indian
mustard ( B. juncea). Current Science. 87(3): 367-370.
22. Ray K, A Jagannath, S A Gangwani, P K Burma and D Pental. 2004. Mutant Acetolactate
synthase gene is an efficient in vitro selectable marker for thegenetic transformation of Brassica
juncea (oilseed mustard). Journal of Plant Physiology. 161: 1079-1083.
23. Bhullar S, S Chakravarthy, S Advani, S Datta, D Pental and P K Burma. 2003. Strategies for
development of functionally equivalent promoters with minimum sequence homology for
transgne expression in plants :cis-elements in a novel DNA context versus domain swapping.
Plant Physiology. 132: 988-998.
24. Chandra A, V Gupta, P K Burma and D Pental. 2003. Patterns of morphogenesis from cotyledon
explants of Pigeonpea. In Vitro Cell Dev Biol.- Plant. 39: 514-519.
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25. Chaudhary B, S Kumar, K V S K Prasad, G S Oinam, P K Burma and D Pental. 2003. Slow
dessication leads to high frequency shoot recovery from transformed somatic embryos of cotton
(Gossypiumhirsutum L. cv. Coker 310FR). Plant Cell Reports. 21: 955-960.
26. Jagannath A, N Arumugam, V Gupta, A Pradhan, P K Burma and D Pental. 2002. Development
of transgenic barstar lines and identification of a male sterile (barnase) / restorer (barstar)
combination for heterosis breeding in Indian oilseed mustard (Brassica juncea). Current Science.
82(1): 46-52.
27. Jagannath A, P Bandyopadhyay, N Arumugam, V Gupta, P K Burma and D Pental. 2001. The use
of a Spacer DNA fragment insulates the tissue-specific expression of a cytotoxic gene (barnase)
and allows high-frequency generation of transgenic male sterile lines in Brassica juncea L.
Molecular Breeding. 8: 11-23.
28. Phogat S K, R Gupta, P K Burma, K Sen and D Pental. 2001. On the estimation of number of
events required for saturation mutagenesis of large genomes. Current Science. 80 (7): 823-824.
29. Phogat S K, P K Burma and D Pental. 2000. High frequency regeneration of Brassica napus
varieties and genetic tranformation of stocks containing fertility restorer genes for two
cytoplasmic male sterility systems. J Plant Biochemistry and Biotechnology. 9: 73-79.
30. Phogat S, P K Burma and D Pental. 2000. A four-element based transposon system for allele
specific tagging in plants - Theoretical considerations. J. Biosciences. 25(1): 57-63.
31. Mehra S, A Pareek, P Bandyopadhyay, P Sharma, P K Burma and D Pental. 2000. Development
of transgenics in Indian oilseed mustard (Brassica juncea) resistant to herbicide phosphinothricin.
Current Science. 78(11): 1358-1364.
32. Raghavan S, P K Burma and S K Brahmachari. 1997. Positional preferences of
polypurine/polypyrimidine tracts in Saccharomyces cerevisiae genome: Implications for cisregulation of gene expression.J Molecular Evolution. 45: 485-498.
33. Burma P K, A Raj, K Deb and S K Brahmachari. 1992. Genome Analysis I: A new approach for
visualisation of sequence organisation in genomes. J of Biosciences. 17(4): 395-411.
34. Brahmachari S K, P S Sarkar, P Balagurumoorthy, P K Burma and R Bagga. 1991. Synthetic
gene design to investigate the role of cis-acting DNA structural elements in regulation of gene
expression in vivo. Nucl Acids Res Sym ser. 24: 163-166.
35. Lakhotia S C, D K Chowdhuri and P K Burma. 1990. Mutations affecting beta- alanine
metabolism influence inducubility of the 93D puff by heat shock in Drosophila melanogaster.
Chromosoma. 99: 296 – 305.
36. Burma P K and S C Lakhotia. 1986. Expression of 93D heat shock puff of
Drosophilamelanogaster in deficiency genotypes and its influence on activity of the
87Cpuff.Chromosoma. 94: 273-278.
37. Burma P K and S C Lakhotia. 1984. Cytological identity of 93D-like and 87C-like heat shock loci
in D. pseudoobscura. Ind J Exp Biol. 22: 577-580.
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Research papers published in Refereed/Peer Reviewed Conferences
1. Brahmachari S K, P S Sarkar, P K Burma, U S Shaligram and S Pataskar. 1995. Synthetic gene
design for modulation of gene expression in vivo. In proceedings Ranbaxy Symposium on
Molecular Genetics and Gene Therapy, 85-97.
Other Publications
Edited Work (Review Articles)
1. Jagannath A, P Bandyopadhyay, S Mehra, N Arumugam, P K Burma and D Pental.
Agrobacterium-mediated genetic transformation of Brassica juncea. 2003.In Plant Genetic
Engineering Vol. II: Improvement of major food crops, eds. Pawan K Jaiwal and Rana P Singh,
349-360. Texas, USA: Sci-Tech. Pub.
2. Pental, D, A Pradhan, A Mukhopadhyay, V Gupta, N Arumugam, Y S Sodhi, P K Burma, J
Verma, A Jagannath, P Bandyopadhyay, S Phogat, S Mehra and A Srivastava. 2000. Breeding of
oilseed Brassica species by a combination of conventional breeding and genetic engineering. In
Rapeseed-Mustard: At the doorstep of the new millennium, eds. A K Bhatnagar, R K Shukla and
H B Singh, 177-182. India: Mustard Research and Promotion Consortium.
Edited Work (Chapter in e-book)
1. Burma P K. 2006 Gene regulation: The operons. E- book on Microbial Genetics
http://nsdl.niscair.re.in/bitstream/123456789/686/1/GeneRegulation.pdf
Book Review
1. Burma P K. 2009. Review of Fundamentals of Genetics, by G S Miglani. Current Science. 96(1):
162-164.
General write-up
1. Burma P K. 2013. Developing constructs and transgenic plants with a lethal gene – our
experiences. Cell Biology Newsletter, Indian Society of Cell Biology,
2. Burma P K. 2009. In defense of enabling technologies. National Economics Journal, The
Economics Society, St. Stephen’s College, New Delhi. 23-25
PATENTS
1. An insulator construct for controlling leaky gene expression of a lethal gene. Indian Patent No.
244022 (2001).
2. DNA construct for obtaining improved fertility resoter lines in crop plants for hybrid seed
production Indian patent No. 238973 (2003).
3. Regulation of lethal gene expression in plants. US Patent No.: US6,833,494. (2004).
4. A method for obtaining improved fertility restorer lines for transgenic male sterile crop plants and
a DNA construct for use in said method. European patent 1644506 (2009).
5. Method for obtaining improved fertility restorer lines for transgenic male sterile crop plants and a
DNA construct for use in said method. US Patent No : 7,741,541B2 (2010).
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6. Regulation of lethal gene expression in plants. Canadian Patent 2 449 250 (2012).
RESEARCH GUIDANCE
Supervision of doctoral thesis, under progress
1. Madhurima Kahali. Analyzing reasons for the detrimental effects of cry proteins in transgenic
plants.
2. Preeti Apurve Sharma. Characterization of tapetum specific promoter TA29 from Nicotiana
tabacum .
3. Neetu Verma. Characterization of tapetum specific promoters.
Supervision of awarded doctoral thesis
1. Suma Chakravarthy. 2000. Modifications of the CaMV 35S promoter as a strategy towards
circumventing homology based gene silencing.
2. Simran Bhullar. 2003. Strategies towards developing promoters to circumvent homology based
gene silencing : CaMV 35S promoter as a model.
3. Sudipta Datta. 2006. Analysis of CaMV 35S promoter and testing synthetic promoters for
homology based gene silencing.
4. Ranjana Verma. 2006. Molecular genetics of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder (Joint
supervision)
5. Kavita P. 2008. Structural and expression analysis of tapetum specific promoters in Brassica
species.
6. Parul Aggarwal. 2010. Optimizing transgene expression in plants: Identification and testing of
promoters from Arabidopsis thaliana for constitutive expression and analyzing codon usage
patterns
7. Gurpreet Kaur. 2011. Studies on improving transgene expression in dicotyledonous plants by
intron-mediated enhancement.
8. Shaveta Kanoria. 2011. Studies on the role of a synthetic 5’UTR on transgene expression in
dicotyledonous plants.
9. Rakhee Lohia (Joint supervision). 2013. Role of HDACs during growth, development and
differentiation of Dictyostelium discoideum.
10. Kaur Kulwinder (Joint supervision). 2014. Development of transgenic lines in rice for male
sterility.
11. Amita Kush Mehrotra. (2014). Analysis of promoters of genes expressed in anthers of cotton and
development of an intron containing barnase gene
Supervision of awarded M.Phil dissertations
1. Agarwal Parul. 2004. Isolation, sequencing and phylogenetic footprinting of tapetum specific A9like genes from Brassica species.
2. Sandeepa Singh. 2005. Variability in transgene expression in plants.
3. Yadav Neeti. 2008. Functional analysis of CaMV35S promoter: studies on subdomain B4.
4. Varsha Garg. 2012. An analysis of two 5’UTR from Arabidopsis thaliana on transgene
expression in tobacco.
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MAJOR RESEARCH PROJECTS
As principal investigator
1. Name of Project: Analyzing the organization of tapetum specific promoters of plants – using
the promoter of A9 gene from Arabidopsis thaliana as a model..
Period: 2014 - 2016
Funding Agency: CSIR
2. Name of Project: Novel approaches for production of hybrid seeds with characteristics of
improved resistance and higher yield – cotton component.
Period: 2008 - 2013
Funding Agency: CSIR NIMITLI project (multi-institutional).
3. Name of Project: Comparative analysis of expression of cry1Ac gene in different cotton
transgenic events commercialized in India.
Period: 2009 – 2010
Funding Agency: DU/DST purse grant.
4. Name of Project: Development and analysis of cotton transgenics for resistance to insect
pests (Bollworm complex).
Period: 2005 - 2009
Funding Agency: Department of Biotechnology, Govt. of India.
5. Name of Project: Characterization of CaMV 35S promoter to develop synthetic promoter(s)
for avoiding homology-based gene silencing.
Period: 2004 - 2007
Funding Agency: Department of Biotechnology, Govt. of India.
6. Name of Project: Knowledge-based design of synthetic promoters to (a) circumvent
homology based silencing of transgene in plants and (b) enhance tissue specific expression.
Period:
Funding Agency: Department of Biotechnology, Govt. of India.
As co-investigator (in collaboration with Prof Deepak Pental)
7. Name of Project: Development of a four-element transposon system for directed tagging of
alleles of high agronomic value in crop plants.
Period: 2001 - 2005
Funding Agency: NIMITLI-CSIR, Govt. of India.
8. Name of Project: Development of fully regenerating lines in Indian Cotton cultivars, vectors
for cotton transformation and transgenics for resistance to Bollworms.
Period: 1999-2004
Funding Agency: Department of Biotechnology, Govt. of India.
9. Name of Project: Molecular characterization and field trials of mustard (Brassica juncea) for
hybrid seed production, low-till cultivation and resistance to Alternaria blight.
Period: 2002 – 2006
Funding Agency: Department of Biotechnology, Govt. of India.
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10. Name of Project: Synthesis of genes modified for enhanced and stable expression in
dicotyledonous crops : (A) Bar and tfdA genes for conferring herbicide resistance (B)
Barstar and barnase encoding genes for heterosis breeding.
Period: 1997 -2000
Funding Agency: Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Govt. of India.
11. Name of Project: Transgenics in (a) Mustard (Brassica juncea) for heterosis breeding and (b)
pigeonpea (Cajanuscajan) for resistance to insect pest Heliothisarmigera.
Period: 1994 - 2001
Funding Agency: Department of Biotechnology, Govt. of India.
OTHER ACTIVITIES
1. Member, Academic team for Indian Junior Science Olympiad 2014.
2. Member, Academic team for the International Junior Science Olympiad in Pune (December
2013).
3. Served as Joint Proctor, University of Delhi.
4. Member of different administrative committees at the University of Delhi South Campus.
5. Member of the committee overseeing the functioning of the Central Instrumentation Facility at
UDSC.
6. Member of the Committee of Courses in Genetics/Departmental Research Committee, Board
of Research Studies (FIAS) and Faculty of Inter-disciplinary and Applied Sciences.
7. Member, Indian Society of Cell Biology (was member of its executive council) and The Biotech
Research society, India.
8. Served as a member (also chaired most of the meetings) of the technical sub-committee
constituted by the University of Delhi for improvement of laboratory facilities of Biological
Sciences in undergraduate colleges. The committee helped identify the infrastructural needs of
the laboratories and procure them to improve practical training of the students.
9. Was coordinator in the subject area of biology at the Institute of Life Long Learning, University
of Delhi in its formative year.
10. Examiner for various universities/bodies (e.g., BHU, JNU, Garwhal University, NEHU, Amity
University, Jamia hamdard, Pune University, CSIR, DBT) both at the undergraduate and
postgraduate levels.
11. Reviewer of research papers for several national and international journals like BMC
Biotechnology, Plant Cell reports, Plant Physiology, Plant Molecular Biology, Plant Molecular
Biology Reporter, Plant and Cell Physiology, Plant Science, Plant Biotechnology Journal,
Current Science, Journal of Bioscience, Virus research
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