Profile
Nitrogen is indispensable for life. Only prokaryotes can reduce gaseous nitrogen to ammonia, which can then be utilized by other eukaryotes. Legumes, being capable of hosting biological nitrogen-fixing bacteria, are blessed with their own supply of nitrogen. Legumes host these bacteria inside a newly developed organ-like structure called nodules. The de novo development of nodules involves de-differentiation of an already differentiated tissue and a huge change of gene expression. My lab investigates the molecular mechanism of root nodule symbiosis (RNS) in legumes. Additionally, we explore the diversity of Nitrogen-fixing bacteria and their mechanism of nitrogen fixation. We also try to understand how RNS has evolved in legumes and trying to understand the genetic blue print in cereal which supports another beneficial symbiosis, i.e, Arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis.
Current Focus Areas
1. How does the host plant guide the bacteria from the free-living lifestyle to an endocytic lifestyle?
2. How does the host plant represses the defense response to accommodate the symbiont?
3. What are the genetic differences that causes the difference in nitrogen- fixation efficiency between legumes?
Selected Publications
Bhattacharjee O, Raul B, Ghosh A, Bhardwaj A, Bandyopadhyay K, and Sinharoy S, (2022). Nodule INception-independent epidermal events lead to bacterial entry during nodule development in peanut (Arachis hypogaea). New Phytologist, 236(6):2265-2281.
Raul B, Bhattacharjee O, Ghosh A, Upadhyay P, Tembhare K, Singh A, Shaheen T, Ghosh A, Torres-Jerez I, Krom N, Clevenger J, Udvardi M, Scheffler B, Ozias Akins P, Dutta Sharma R, Bandyopadhyay K, Gaur V, Kumar S, and Sinharoy S* (2022) Microscopic and transcriptomic analyses of Dalbergoid legume peanut reveal a divergent evolution leading to Nod Factor dependent epidermal crack-entry and terminal bacteroid differentiation. Mol Plant Microbe Interact DOI/10.1094/MPMI-05-21-0122-R
Mandal D, Sinharoy S. (2019) A Toolbox for Nodule Development Studies in Chickpea: A Hairy-Root Transformation Protocol and an Efficient Laboratory Strain of Mesorhizobium sp. Mol Plant Microbe Interact. Apr;32(4):367-378.
Sinharoy S, Liu C., Breakspear A, Guan D, Jiangqi W, Murray J, Udvardi M, (2016). Cystathionine Beta Synthase domain-containing protein is required for infection thread propagation and nodule development in Medicago. Plant Physiology 170(4): 2204-17
. Sinharoy S, Torres-Jerez I, Bandyopadhyay K, Kereszt A, Pislariu CI, Nakashima J, Benedito VA, Kondorosi E and Udvardi MK (2013). The C2H2 transcription factor regulator of symbiosome differentiation represses transcription of the secretory pathway gene VAMP721a and promotes symbiosome development in Medicago truncatula. Plant Cell 25, 3584-601.