National Institute of Plant Genome Research
 
    Dr. Debasis Chattopadhyay
    Staff Scientist V
    Ph.D. - Calcutta University
    Pos-Doctoral Fellow - The Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Ohio
    Tel: 91-11-26741612,14,17 Ext. - 189
    Direct - 26735189
    Fax: 91-11-26741658
    E-mail: debasis_chattopadhyay@nipgr.res.in chattod@yahoo.co.in
 Research Interest
Our program focuses on three major areas of research, namely, improvement of tolerance to abiotic stresses (i.e. drought and salt) in higher plants by improving root traits, and developing resistance in Soybean against Geminivirus infection and genome sequencing.
Abiotic Stress Tolerance
Our research interest is in the field of agricultural and plant biotechnogy especially in abiotic stress (drought and salinity) response in plants. Our group focuses on mechanism of root growth and thereby improving abiotic stress tolerance in plant. Phytohormone auxin is the most important regulator of all the stages of root development. Our group is investigating the nodal point of interaction between auxin and abscisic acid, the hormone that regulates abiotic stress response in plants. Our long term goal is to use genetic engineering to improve root biomass production and tolerance to abiotic stresses of important crops.
Working with chickpea our group identified a number of genes that specifically express at a higher level in drought-tolerant variety in response to drought. To establish the biological functions of the identified genes, we demonstrated that two transcription factors CAP2 and CaZF conferred overall growth, especially of root, and abiotic stress (drought, salinity and heat)-tolerance in transgenic plants. We proposed a novel role for Arabidopsis and Chickpea CIPK6 that this protein is responsible for shoot to root auxin transport and thereby root-branching at the early seedling stage. Previously we have shown that half-life of some of the stress-induced messenger RNAs increase during the time period between two subsequent stresses and mediate adaptive response.
MYMV-Soybean interaction
We are also investigating host-pathogen interaction during Mungbean Yellow Mosaic India Virus (MYMIV) infection in soybean. MYMIV infects fourteen legume crops in India and cause immense loss. We have constructed a highly virulent infectious clone of MYMIV that has potential for commercial use to screen the hybrid soybean and uradbean populations for MYMIV-resistance within the laboratory avoiding use of whiteflies (Patent). They have shown that early induction of transcriptional and post-transcriptional gene silencing is one of the mechanisms of natural MYMIV-resistance in the soybean.
Genome Sequencing
Our laboratory is one of the three Indian centers that sequenced chromosome 5 of tomato genome. We are also sequencing and assembling chickpea genome, the first whole plant genome India proposes for de novo sequencing.
 Publications
Jain D and Chattopadhyay D (2010) Analysis of gene expression in response to water deficit of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) varieties differing in drought tolerance. BMC Plant Biology 10: 24
Sahu PP, Rai NK, Chakraborty S, Singh M, Prasanna HC, Ramesh B, Chattopadhyay D, Prasad M (2010) Tomato cultivar tolerant to Tomato leaf curl New Delhi virus infection induces virus-specific siRNA accumulation and defence associated host gene expression. Molecular Plant Pathology 11(4): 531-544
Tripathi V, Parasuraman B, Laxmi A and Chattopadhyay D (2009) CIPK6, a CBL-interacting protein kinase is required for development and salt tolerance in plant. Plant Journal 58:778-790
Shukla RK, Raha S, Tripathi V and Chattopadhyay D (2006) Expression of CAP2, an AP2-family transcription factor from Chickpea enhances growth and tolerance to dehydration and salt tress in transgenic tobacco. Plant Physiology 142: 113-123.
Boominathan P, Shukla RK, Kumar A, Manna D, Negi D, Verma PK and Chattopadhyay D (2004) Long term transcript accumulation during the development of dehydration adaptation in Cicer arietinum L. Plant Physiology 135(3):1608-1620.
Jain D, Roy N and Chattopadhyay D (2009) CaZF, a plant transcription factor functions independent of Hog1p and Calcineurin in Saccharomyces cerevisiae to provide osmotolerance. PLoS ONE 4(4):e5154
Shukla RK, Vripathi V, Jain D, Yadav RK and Chattopadhyay D (2009) CAP2 enhances germination of transgenic tobacco seeds at high temperature and promotes heat stress tolerance in yeast. FEBS Journal (doi:10.1111/j.1742-4658.2009.07219.x)
Yadav RK, Shukla RK and Chattopadhyay D (2009) Soybean cultivar resistant to Mungbean Yellow Mosaic India Virus infection induces viral RNA degradation earlier than the susceptible cultivar. Virus Research 144: 89-95 (doi:10.1016/j.virusres.2009.04.011).
Tripathi V, Syed N, Laxmi A and Chattopadhyay D (2009) Role of CIPK6 in root growth and auxin transport. Plant Signaling and Behavior 4(7):663-665.
Shridhar S, Chattopadhyay D and Yadav G (2009) PLecDom: A Program for identification and Analysis of Plant Lectin Domains. Nucleic Acid Research Jul 1; 37: W452-8. Epub 2009 May 27
Kaur H, Shukla RK, Yadav G, Chattopadhyay D and Majee M (2008) Two divergent genes encoding L-myo-inositol 1-phosphate synthase1 (CaMIPS1) and 2 (CaMIPS2) are differentially expressed in chickpea. Plant Cell Environ 31:1701-1716
Yadav V, Kundu S, Chattopadhyay D, Negi P, Wei N, Deng XW and Chattopadhyay S (2002) Light regulated modulation of Z- box containing promoters by photoreceptors and downstream regulatory components, COP1 and HY5 in Arabidopsis. Plant Journal 31(6): 731-753.
The Tomato Genome Sequencing Consortium (2009) A snapshot of the emerging tomato genome sequence. The Plant genome 2(1): 78-92
Mueller LA, Tanksley SD, Chattopadhyay D and Zamir D. (SOL genome consortium). (2005) The Tomato Sequencing Project, the first cornerstone of the International Solanaceae Project (SOL). Comparative and Functional Genomics 6(3): 153-158.
Nayak S, Balaji J, Upadhyay HD, Hash CT, KaviKishore PB, Chattopadhyay D, Rodrigues LM, Blair MW, Baum M, McNally K, This D, Hosington D and Varshney R (2009) Isolation and sequence analysis of DREB2A homologues in three cereal and two legume species. Plant Science (in press).
Chattopadhyay D, Ghosh MK, Mal A, and Harter ML (2001) Inactivation of p21 by E1A Leads to the Induction of Apoptosis in DNA-Damaged Cells. J. Virol. 5: 9844-9856.
Basak S, Raha T, Chattopadhyay D, Majumder A, Shaila MS and Chattopadhyay DJ (2003) Leader RNA Binding Ability of Chandipura Virus P protein is Regulated by its Phosphorylation Status: A Possible Role in Genome Transcription-Replication Switch. Virology 307: 372-385.
Mal A, Chattopadhyay D, Ghosh M, Poon RYC, Hunter T and Harter ML (2000) p21 and Retinoblastoma protein control the absence of DNA replication in terminally differentiated muscle cells. Jour. of Cell Biology 149(2): 281-292.
Raha T, Chattopadhyay D and Chattopadhyay D (2000) N-terminal region of P protein of Chandipura virus is responsible for phosphorylation-mediated homodimerization. Protein Engineering 13(6): 437-444.
Raha T, Chattopadhyay D, Chattopadhyay D and Roy S (1999). A phosphorylation induced major structural change in the N-terminal domain of the P protein of Chandipura virus. Biochemistry 38(7): 2110-2116.
Chattopadhyay D, Raha T, Chattopadhyay D (1997) PCR mutagenesis:Treatment of megaprimer with mung bean nuclease improves yield. BioTechniques 22: 1054-1056.
Chattopadhyay D, Raha T, Chattopadhyay D (1997) Single Serine phosphorylation within acidic domain of Chandipura virus P protein regulates the transcription in vitro. Virology 239: 11-19.
Chattopadhyay D and Chattopadhyay D (1994). Cloning of Chandipura virus phosphoprotein encoding gene and its expression in E.coli. Cell. Mol. Biol. Res. 40: 693-698
Biswas S, Gupta MK, Chattopadhyay D and Mukhopadhyay CK (2007). Insulin induced activation of Hypoxia inducible factor-1 requires generation of reactive oxygen species by NADPH oxidase. Am. J. Physiol: Heart Circ. Physiol. 292: 758-766
 Patent Filed
 "Chimeric Construct of Mungbean Yellow Mosaic India Virus (MYMIV) and its uses thereof" - IPA-2571/DEL/2007 and PCT/IN/2008/000819.