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Indranil Dasgupta

Professor 

 

E-mail: indranil58@yahoo.co.in

Specialization: Molecular biology of plant viruses, transgenic virus resistance and plant-virus interactions

Research Interests:  

My lab is interested in studying the genomes of viruses infecting crops, their interactions with their hosts, development of transgenic virus resistance in plants and the use of viral genomes for the expression and silencing of plant genes. Analysis of viral genome sequences with viruses of rice have shown that out of the two viruses causing the Rice tungro disease, Rice tungro bacilliform virus (RTBV) exists as a distinct group in India, when compared to Southeast Asia (Nath et al., 2002), whereas Rice tungro spherical virus (RTSV), the second virus, is conserved across Asia (Verma and Dasgupta, 2007). Coat protein-mediated resistance and RNA-interference have been used to produce viral resistance in rice  (Ganesan et al., 2009, Tyagi et al., 2008). The use of plant lectins to control rice pests and viral diseases vectored by them have been demonstrated by us, in collaboration with Bose Institute, Kolkata (Saha et al., 2006). We have shown that the promoter of RTBV consists of tissue-specific control elements useful in driving gene expression in a defined manner in transgenic plants (Mathur and Dasgupta, 2007). An international patent has been filed on this knowledge and the modified promoter has been licensed to a seed company for commercial exploitation. We have modified RTBV DNA as a gene-silencing vector for rice and shown that it is capable of transient silencing of a rice gene within three weeks of inoculation via Agrobacterium. In citrus, we have standardized methods for the detection of the emerging virus Citrus yellow mosaic virus (Borah et al., 2008) and analyzed the genome sequences of its two isolates, revealing new insights into its gene functions (Borah et al., 2009). Our studies with viruses infecting cassava in India have shown that, in addition to Indian cassava mosaic virus, reported earlier from India, Sri Lankan cassava mosaic virus (SLCMV) also infects cassava (Dutt et al., 2005) and is widespread in southern India (Patil et al., 2005). In collaboration with European scientists, we have shown extensive recombination and the generation of defective viral DNAs in cassava and other experimental hosts (Patil et al., 2007). Methods to inoculate SLCMV DNA to the model plant Arabidopsis have been standardized to study plant-virus interactions (Mittal et al., 2008).

* Select Publications

  • Borah, BK, Johnson, AMA, Sai Gopal, DVR and Dasgupta, I (2009) Sequencing and computational analysis of complete genome sequences of Citrus yellow mosaic badna virus from acid lime and pummelo. Virus Genes 39: 137-140.
  • Ganesan, U, Suri, SS, Rajasubramaniam, S, Rajam, MV and Dasgupta, I (2009) Transgenic expression of coat protein gene of Rice tungro bacilliform virus in rice reduces the accumulation of viral DNA in inoculated plants. Virus Genes 39:113–119.
  • Purkayastha, A and Dasgupta, I (2009) Virus-induced gene silencing: A versatile tool for discovery of gene functions in plants. Plant Physiology and Biochemistry 47: 967-976.
  • Borah, BK, Johnson, AMA, Sai Gopal, DVR and Dasgupta, I (2008) A comparison of four DNA extraction methods for the detection of Citrus yellow mosaic badnavirus from two species of citrus using PCR and dot-blot hybridisation. Journal of Virological Methods 151:321-324.
  • Mittal, D, Borah, BK and Dasgupta, I (2008) Agroinfection of cloned Sri Lankan cassava mosaic virus DNA to Arabidopsis thaliana, Nicotiana tabacum and cassava. Archives of Virology 153: 2149-2155.
  • Tyagi, H, Rajasubramaniam, S, Rajam, MV and Dasgupta, I (2008) RNA-interference in rice against Rice tungro bacilliform virus results in its decreased accumulation in inoculated rice plants. Transgenic Research 17: 897-904.
  • Mathur, S and Dasgupta, I (2007) Downstream promoter sequence of an Indian isolate of Rice tungro bacilliform virus alters tissue-specific expression in host rice and acts differentially in heterologous systems. Plant Molecular Biology 65(3): 259-275.
  • Patil, BL, Dutt, N, Briddon, RW, Bull, SE, Rothenstein, D, Borah, BK, Dasgupta, I, Stanley, J and Jeske, H (2007) Deletion and recombination events between the DNA-A and DNA-B components of Indian cassava-infecting geminiviruses generate defective molecules in Nicotiana benthamiana. Virus Research 124: 59-67.
  • Verma, V and Dasgupta, I (2007) Sequence analysis of the complete genomes of two Rice tungro spherical virus isolates from India. Archives of Virology 152 (3): 645-648.
  • Patil, BL and Dasgupta, I (2006) Defective interfering DNAs of plant viruses Critical Reviews in Plant Sciences 25:47-64.
  • Saha, P, Dasgupta, I and Das, S. (2006) A novel approach for developing resistance in rice against phloem limited viruses by antagonizing the phloem feeding hemipteran vectors Plant Molecular Biology 62: 735-752.
  • Dutt, N, Briddon, RW and Dasgupta, I (2005) Identification of a second begomovirus, Sri Lankan cassava mosaic virus, causing cassava mosaic disease in India. Archives of Virology 150: 2101-2108.
  • Nath, N, Mathur, S and Dasgupta, I (2002) Molecular analysis of two complete rice tungro bacilliform virus sequencesfrom India. Archives of Virology 147: 1173-1187.
 
 On Going Research Projects:

    Title

    Duration

    Source of Funding

    Development of virus resistance in rice based on RNA-interference.

    August 2008 – July 2011

    Department of Biotechnology

    Investigating the interactions between Cassava mosaic viruses, satellite DNAs and whiteflies.

    August 2009 – July 2012

    Department of Biotechnology

    Functional analysis of gene regulatory networks during flower and seed development in rice.

    September 2009 – August 2014

    Department of Biotechnology

    Generation of transgenic marker-free virus resistance in okra using RNA-interference.

    December 2009 –November 2012

    DU/DST-PURSE Grant and Industrial Partner

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