Scientist Profile

Plant Tissue Culture, Molecular Biology and Genetic Engineering

1. Visited Institute of Plant Genetics, Polish Academy of Sciences (IPG PAS), Poznan, Poland under the India-Poland Inter-Governmental Bilateral research project supported by the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India and Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange (NAWA), Poland during 1st - 21st June 2023.
2. Visited Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Brisbane, Australia in the third series of Stewardship training on the aspect of pro-vitamin A (PVA) and iron content analysis in transgenic banana fruit samples under the BIRAC funded banana biofortification collaborative research project during 12th – 17th October 2015.
3. Visited Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Brisbane, Australia in the second series of Stewardship training on the aspect of (i) safety, (ii) compliance, (III) containment and confinement, (iv) product identity and (v) quality and sustainability under the BIRAC funded banana biofortification collaborative research project during 24th – 27th August 2014.
4. Visited QUT, Brisbane, Australia in the first Stewardship training on capacity enhancement in banana transformation and regeneration methodology under the BIRAC funded banana biofortification collaborative research project during 10th and 14th December 2012.

1. In the international collaboration, we are working towards the enhancement of pro-vitamin A (PVA) content in banana. Multiple gene constructs from Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Australia and developed by us those which are capable of enhancing PVA were transferred in cultivated varieties of Indian Banana. Containment trial for the genetically engineered banana with high PVA content is being performed by following biosafety guidelines. Promising banana lines are being evaluated for bioavailability, nutritional and multilocation agronomical trials with other national institutes/universities.
2. Gene editing for target banana genes has been initiated for enhancing the synthesis/stability of carotenoids, iron and ascorbic acid in banana.
3. Transgenic wheat lines with low phytic acid (PA) were generated.
4. Marker-free / transgene-free transformation / genome editing procedures for banana, wheat and pea are being explored and developed.
5. Two major contributions were derived from my doctoral research. The first one was the expression of cholera toxin B subunit fusion with rabies glycoprotein in peanut/groundnut seed which also demonstrated immunoprotection in mice. It was a step-forward research in the direction to develop plant-seed-based edible vaccine against cholera and rabies (received DR. YSR BioAsia Innovation Young Scientist Award-2010). The second outcome was the expression of insect resistance Cry1EC protein in leaves of peanut which showed complete protection against economical important polyphagous foliage insect tobacco cutworm (Spodoptera litura) (received 97th Indian Science Congress Association (ISCA) Young Scientist Award-2010).

Metabolic engineering of staple crops (banana and wheat) for nutritional enrichment: Banana and wheat are important staple crops that significantly contribute towards food security in many developing countries where vitamin A and iron deficiencies are the major problems. Biofortification of these crops for beta-carotene and iron enhancement is being considered by us as a promising, cost-effective and sustainable solution. For this, we are utilizing modern biotechnological approaches like transgenic, cisgenic, depletion of anti-nutrient (by RNAi) and genome editing (by CRISPR-CAS). We are generating new knowledge and implementing the available resources of genomics, bioinformatics, transcriptomics and metabolomics for precise metabolic engineering of the relevant biosynthetic pathways in these two crops. Further, the biofortified crops would be analyzed for nutritional and agronomical performance with the appropriate collaborative efforts in due course of time.

1. Siddhant Chaturvedi, Neha Thakur, Shahirina Khan, Mithilesh Kumar, Alka Jangra and Siddharth Tiwari (2023) Overexpression of banana GDP-L-galactose phosphorylase (GGP) modulates the biosynthesis of ascorbic acid in Arabidopsis thaliana. International Journal of Biological Macromolecules. 15:237:124124 doi: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2023.124124.

2. Neha Thakur, Flowerika, Siddhant Chaturvedi and Siddharth Tiwari (2023) Wheat derived glucuronokinase as a potential target for regulating ascorbic acid and phytic acid content with increased root length under drought and ABA stresses in Arabidopsis thaliana. Plant Science. 331:111671. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.plantsci.2023.111671

3. Praveen Awasthi, Shahirina Khan, Hiralben Lakhani, Siddhant Chaturvedi, Shivani, Navneet Kaur, Jagdeep Singh, Atul Kumar Kesarwani, Siddharth Tiwari (2022). Transgene-free genome editing supports the role of carotenoid cleavage dioxygenase 4 as a negative regulator of β-carotene in banana. Journal of Experimental Botany 73, 3401–3416. doi: 10.1093/jxb/erac042

4. Navneet Kaur, Anshu Alok, Shivani, Pankaj Kumar, Navjot Kaur, Praveen Awasthi, Siddhant Chaturvedi, Pankaj Pandey,  and Siddharth Tiwari (2020) CRISPR/Cas9 directed editing of lycopene epsilon-cyclase modulates metabolic flux for β-carotene biosynthesis in banana fruit. Metabolic Engineering 59:76-86. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ymben.2020.01.008

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Received by me: 

i.    Received “NABI Best Research Publication award” for the Year 2019-20 in the field of Agri-Biotechnology for a paper published in Metabolic Engineering, I.F. 8.4 (Kaur et al., 2020; CRISPR/Cas9 directed editing of lycopene epsilon-cyclase modulates metabolic flux for β-carotene biosynthesis in banana fruit) 
ii.    Received “Shining Glory Award (Science Excellence) - 2019” in the field of Research, Development and Upliftment of Society. The award was presented by Green Maple Foundation (GMF) a non-profit organization during the ceremony scheduled on 26 May 2019 at Chandigarh.
iii.    Received “Indian Science Congress Association (ISCA) Young Scientist Award – 2010” in the section of Plant Sciences. Award was presented by the former Indian President Dr. A.P.J. Kalam. Award presentation was held on Kerala University, Thrivananthapurum, during the 97th session of Indian Science Congress from 3-7 Jan., 2010.
iv.    Received “Dr. YSR BioAsia Innovation Award - 2010 for Young Scientist”. Award was presented by the Andhra Pradesh Governor Shri E.S.L. Narasimhan during the BioAsia conference from 3-6 February, 2010 at Hyderabad.
v.    Received “Post Graduate Research Fellowship”, awarded by Department of Higher Education, Government of Madhya Pradesh, India for the Session 1999-2001.

b.    Received by Ph.D. students:

i.    Ms. Shahirina Khan was awarded a fully sponsored Cluster of Excellence on Plant Sciences (CEPLAS) international student exchange program fellowship for working with Prof. Petra Bauer at Heinrich Heine University (HHU) Düsseldorf, Germany for six months from October 2023 - March 2024. She is working on iron homeostasis and signalling in banana plants.
ii.    Ms. Navneet Kaur was awarded the fellowship for attending the fully sponsored “2019 Global Leadership Fellows Program”, organized and sponsored by the Alliance for Science at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA from 26th August 2019 to 15 November 2019.
iii.    Ms. Lakhani Hiralben Lavjibhai got the best poster presentation award on  “CRISPR/Cas9 RNP delivery into banana protoplasts for generation of transgene-free banana plants” at the International Conference on Food and Nutritional Security (iFANS2023) organized at NABI-CIAB, Mohali, India from January 6-9, 2023. 

iv.    Mr. Hardeep Singh got a certificate of award for an oral presentation on “Development of robust and effective Agrobacterium-mediated genetic transformation system for CRISPR/Cas9-based genome editing in pea (Pisum sativum L.)” at the 'International Conference on Pulses: Smart Crops for Agricultural Sustainability and Nutritional Security (ICPulses-2023)' organized at National Agricultural Science Complex (NASC), New Delhi from February 10-12, 2023.

v.    Ms. Lakhani Hiralben Lavjibhai received the best oral presentation award in the session of Plant Tissue Culture & Transgenics at the 43rd Annual Meeting of Plant Tissue Culture Association-India (PTCA-I) & International Symposium on Advances in Plant Biotechnology and Nutritional Security (APBNS-2022) organized by ICAR-NIPB, N. Delhi from April 28-30, 2022.

vi.    Ms. Lakhani Hiralben Lavjibhai has received a highly competitive and prestigious CII-SERB ‘Prime Minister’s Fellowship for Doctoral Research from 1st October 2021 to 30th September 2025. This is a unique scholarship supported by the Science & Engineering Research Board (SERB), Department of Science & Technology (DST), Government of India and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). 

vii.    Ms. Flowerika received the Best Poster Presentation Award in the Chintan symposium-2018 held on 29th - 30th Nov. 2018 at NABI, Mohali.