Latha Rangan

Title : Estimation of nuclear genome size and its correlation with Ty1-copia like LTR retrotransposon and cell phenotypic traits

Abstract:

Bioenergy crops are often regarded as an important contributor in the mitigation of global climate change and energy security. Pongamia pinnata, Jatropha curcas, Ricinus communis and Mesua ferrea are four well known biofuel crops with versatile socio-economic values. The potentialities of these crops are dependent on extensiveness of knowledge of their genome structure. Thus, flow cytometric estimation of nuclear DNA content of these plants was made using propidium iodide (PI) as the DNA stain. The 2C DNA values were estimated to be 0.86 pg, 1.01 pg, 1.4 pg and 2.49 pg for Jatropha, Ricinus, Mesua and Pongamia respectively. Variation in genome size was observed among the plants collected from different geographic locations in Assam and was attributed mainly to climatic differences, along with the reverse transcriptase-RNase H (RT-RH) domains of the Ty1-copia retrotransposons. Dot blot analysis revealed that Ty1-copia accounts for 2 %, 6.21 %, 9.66 % and 2.5 % of total haploid nuclear genome of Jatropha, Ricinus, Mesua and Pongamia. Phylogenetic analyses showed that the RT-RH sequences were heterogeneous and resolved into distinct groups. Subsequently, environmental changes affecting phenotypic traits that are unswervingly responsible for growth and yield were studied. Inverse relationship of genome size with stomatal pore size, guard cell length, epidermal cell area and cell volume was observed whereas a linear relationship with stomatal density was seen. This comprehensive study effectively contributes to our understanding about genome organization and will provide valuable information for its utilization in future. Further, the information obtained from present study could be utilised for the development of new strategies to improve the existing genotypes.

Biography:

Dr Latha Rangan is currently Professor at the Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati. She obtained her PhD in 2001 and had post-doctoral stints on rice transformation in United Kingdom. Her main focus of research has been on in areas of Applied Biodiversity with special reference to bioresources of Northeast India using an integrative approach. Prof. Rangan has been successful in combining the old with the new, because nature is our prototype. The work has laid foundation for new ways to detect, authenticate, protect and exploit biodiversity, for instance as resource for sustainable agriculture taking the case of the useful medicinal plants. In brief applied biodiversity research has helped in tapping bioresources from wilderness to mining ‘OMICS’. She has published over 90 articles as scientific papers, book chapters, conference proceedings and reviews. She is an Elected Fellow of National Academy of Sciences, India and recipient of awards such as Prof Hiralal Chakravarty Award of Indian Science Congress, Women Scientist Award of Biotech Research Society of India, Young Scientist Award of Society for Chemist and Biologist and Dr J N Baruah Science Award for her significant contributions in are of Plant Sciences.