Profile
Our lab works on analyzing the genomics of pulses and millets to identify factors that regulate plants' response to abiotic stress, especially drought and salinity. Many pulses, like mung bean, are susceptible to these stresses which leads to heavy losses in yields. There are reports of transcription factors that regulate abiotic stress response in pulses. Therefore, characterization of plant-unique transcription factors could help develop sturdier pulse crops that are usually affected adversely by drought and salinity. On the other hand, small millets, such as little millet, are naturally tolerant towards drought and can be studied for identifying novel regulatory elements that help mitigate the effects of abiotic stress on plants. Therefore, we aim to integrate the knowledge obtained from the genomics of these plants to develop climate-resilient crops.
Current Focus Areas
Deciphering the role of plant-unique Arginine rich Tandem Zinc Finger family in mung bean's (Vigna radiata) response to drought and salinity stress
Whole genome assembly and analysis of the little millet (Panicum sumatrense) genome to develop viable molecular markers and identify genes regulating plant's response to drought stress
Selected Publications
Das, R. R., Kumar, A., Baghel, D. S., Mahato, A. K., Dey, N., Mukherjee, P. K., & Pradhan, S. (2024). Whole genome assembly of the Little Millet (Panicum sumatrense) genome: A climate resilient crop species. bioRxiv, 2024-02.
Suranjika, S., Pradhan, S., Nayak, S. S., & Parida, A. (2022). De novo transcriptome assembly and analysis of gene expression in different tissues of moth bean (Vigna aconitifolia)(Jacq.) Marechal. BMC Plant Biology, 22(1), 198.
Shyamli, P. S., Pradhan, S., Panda, M., & Parida, A. (2021). De novo whole-genome assembly of Moringa oleifera helps identify genes regulating drought stress tolerance. Frontiers in Plant Science, 12, 766999.
Pradhan, S., Verma, S., Chakraborty, A., & Bhatia, S. (2021). Identification and molecular characterization of miRNAs and their target genes associated with seed development through small RNA sequencing in chickpea. Functional & Integrative Genomics, 21, 283-298.
Pradhan, S., Shyamli, P. S., Suranjika, S., & Parida, A. (2021). Genome wide identification and analysis of the R2R3-MYB transcription factor gene family in the mangrove Avicennia marina. Agronomy, 11(1), 123.