Dr Dr Vivek Dogra Sr. Scientist; Ramalingaswami Fellow
Research focus
he ever-changing climate poses a significant challenge as it presents distress to the growth and development of plants. Therefore, there is a need for plants to develop adaptation strategies. Ample evidence in recent past projected chloroplasts as sensors for environmental cues, priming the plant response to deal with the adversities.
Taking this into account, We are interested to understand:
(i) How plants sense and manage environmental perturbations such as high light, temperature, and photoinhibitory stresses, with an emphasis on the role of chloroplast in this process.
(ii) Impact of stresses on chloroplast protein homeostasis directly affecting photosynthetic machinery, to engineer stress-resilient photosynthetic apparatus.
(iii) Identification and characterization of various phytoelicitors, including reactive electrophile species, metabolites, and phytohormones released as retrograde signals from chloroplast that prime stress responses in high-altitude crop and medicinal plants
For our research, we are investigating Arabidopsis thaliana, Setaria italica (Foxtail millet) and High Altitude Extremophytes of the Himalayas, employing forward and reverse genetics, genetic engineering, cell biology, and multi-omics.