Profile
I have a PhD in Plant Biological Sciences from the University of Minnesota, St. Paul, where I used a transcriptomics approach to elucidate aluminum toxicity and tolerance mechanisms in the model legume Medicago truncatula. This was followed by a postdoc at the University of California, Berkeley where I used infection site-specific profiling and molecular genetics to unravel Arabidopsis-powdery mildew interactions. I am currently an Associate Professor at RCB. In total, I have 18+ years of experience in the field of plant-pathogen interactions, genomics, and molecular genetics.
Current Focus Areas
We study the molecular interplay between a fungal pathogen, commonly known as 'powdery mildew', and its host leguminous plants (pea, Medicago, etc.). Our long-term goal is to engineer durable resistance against this disease in legumes of agronomic import.
We employ functional genomics, metabolomics, cell biology, and reverse genetics tools to identify novel host processes and the underlying genes that impact powdery mildew growth without an associated yield penalty.
Another major area of focus is to elucidate how these obligate biotrophic fungi utilize ‘effector’ proteins to suppress host immunity and modulate host metabolism to divert nutrients from the plant to fuel growth and reproduction.
We also study how legumes differentiate between beneficial (arbuscular mycorrhiza) and pathogenic fungi.
Selected Publications
Sharma, A., Chandran, D. (2022) Host nuclear repositioning and actin polarization towards the site of penetration precedes fungal ingress during compatible pea-powdery mildew interactions. Planta 256, 45.
Gupta A#, Awasthi P#, Sharma N, Parveen S, Vats RP, Singh N, Kumar Y, Goel A* & Chandran D* (2022) Medicarpin confers powdery mildew resistance in Medicago truncatula and activates the salicylic acid signalling pathway.Molecular Plant Pathology, 23:966-983.
Gupta, M, Dubey S, Jain D, and Chandran D (2021) The Medicago truncatula sugar transport protein 13 and Its Lr67res-like variant confer powdery mildew resistance in legumes via defense modulation. Plant and Cell Physiology doi.org/10.1093/pcp/pcab021
Gupta M, Sharma G, Saxena D, Budhwar R, Vasudevan M, Gupta V, Gupta A, Gupta R, Chandran D. (2019) Dual RNA-Seq analysis of Medicago truncatula and the pea powdery mildew Erysiphe pisi uncovers distinct host transcriptional signatures during incompatible and compatible interactions and pathogen effector candidates. Genomics
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Sharma G, Aminedi R, Saxena D, Gupta A, Banerjee P, Jain D, Chandran D (2019) Effector mining from the Erysiphe pisi haustorial transcriptome identifies novel candidates involved in pea powdery mildew pathogenesis Mol. Plant Pathol.
doi.org/10.1111/mpp.12862