Curriculum vitae

Arun K. Sharma

Associate Professor

Department of Plant Molecular Biology,

University of Delhi, South Campus

New Delhi - 110 021

Phone: 9810538742

Fax: 24119430

E-mail:

Date of Birth: 22nd July, 1959

Education

Ph.D.** in Life Sciences from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi (1987)

M.Phil.* in Life Sciences from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi (1982)

M.Sc. Botany from Institute of Advanced Studies, Meerut University (1980)

*M.Phil Topic: Regulation of Nitrite Reductase by Phytochrome in Maize.

**Ph.D. Topic: Phytochrome Regulation of Nitrate Reductase and Nitrite Reductase in Maize.

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE:

Research Associate at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India (1987-1988)

Post-Doctoral Associate at Yale University, New Haven, U.S.A. (1988)

Research Associate at Wayne State University, Detroit, U.S.A. (1989-1991)

Research Scientist at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India (1991-1994)

Scientist at Delhi University, South Campus, New Delhi, India (1995-1997)

Lecturer at Delhi University, South Campus, New Delhi, India (1997-2002)

Reader at Delhi University, South Campus, New Delhi, India (2002)

Associate Professor at Delhi University, South Campus, New Delhi, India (2005)

RESEARCH AREAS:

1. Sequencing of tomato genome: I am one of the investigators in “Indian initiative on Tomato Genome Sequencing” where part of chromosome 5 of tomato has been sequenced by BAC by BAC approach. Two of my students contributed in physical mapping of BACs on chromosome 5 and sequencing.

2. Regulation of fruit ripening in tomato: In order to study gene regulation during ripening of tomato fruits 110 ripening-related genes of tomato have been cloned. Expression of these genes at different stages of fruit ripening has been analyzed. One of the gene which codes for a MADS box containing factor, LeMAD-RIN has been studied further. Lesion in gene for this transcription factor is known to impair only a subset of ethylene responses, which are related to fruit ripening. Transgenic tomato plants showing RNAi for this gene have been produced. The plants mutant for this gene have been utilized to differentiate ethylene regulated fruit ripening-related genes from ethylene regulated genes which are not related to fruit ripening, using microarray analysis. Two other genes LeEIL1 and LeEIL3, involved in ethylene signal transduction have been silenced by RNAi to produce plants with delayed ripening phenotypes.

3. Genetic manipulation of tomato for cold resistance: Attempt has been made to engineer cold resistance in tomato using OSISAP gene of rice. This gene has been shown to improve cold tolerance of tobacco. Transgenic tomato plants expressing this gene under the control of 35S promoter have been produced. These plants show tolerance to various stresses. A complete gene family of homolgs of this rice gene has been characterized from tomato. Genes encoding all the members have been cloned sequenced, mapped on chromosomes and their expression has been analyzed in response to various stresses. Further, subtraction libraries have been made and sequenced for analysis of cold regulated genes of tomato. Several important genes with potential for improving cold tolerance have been identified. Transgenic plants over-expressing genes encoding for mitogen activated protein kinase 3 and alternative oxidase 1are being produced.

4. Expression of proteins of pharmaceutical importance in plants: The genes for B subunit (CTB) of cholera toxin, toxin co-regulated pillus (TCP) protein and accessory colonization factor (ACF) of Vibrio cholerae have been introduced into tomato. Further, chimeric antigens having CTB fused to immunogenic epitopes of TCP have also been expressed in tomato plants. Feeding of transgenic tomato expressing CTB to mice was found to elicit production of CTB-specific IgA antibodies.

5. Role of DNA methylation: A study has been carried out to understand the role of DNA methylation in regulation of development. Methylated DNA binding proteins have been detected from tomato with the help of south-western and electrophoretic mobility shift assays, using methylated DNA probes. Genes for methylated DNA binding proteins of Arabidopsis, AtMBD4, AtMBD6, AtMBD10 and AtMBD11 have been cloned. Role of genes is being investigated by their silencing and over-expression. Using an experimental system involving silencing of gus reporter gene, it has been demonstrated for the first time that AtMBD11 has a role in gene silencing.


6. Signal Transduction: Role of light in regulation of nitrate reductase and nitrite reductase in maize has been studied. The studies suggested that light mediates its effect through atransmitter, which had a life time of 12 h. Attempts were made to find out the nature of this transmitter. The studies suggested the role of phosphoinositide cycle in light regulation. Similar study has been done to find out the events involved in light regulation of chloroplast encoded genes. Calcium and cGMP have been found to have a role in light regulation of chloroplastic genes.


7. Study of protein-DNA interactions: Interplay of general and specific transcription factors and RNA polymerase controls the expression of genes. A site-specific photocrosslinking method for study of DNA-protein interaction was developed. General photo-crosslinking leads to crosslinking of all the proteins binding to a DNA fragment. This method allowed crosslinking of protein only at a specified position, where a photosensitive group was incorporated into DNA fragment. JC virus is known to affect glial cells of brain. A tissue specific silencer element of JC virus T antigen promoter was identified and a glial cell-specific transcription factor binding to this domain was identified.

RESEARCH PROJECTS:

A: Ongoing and completed projects

I. DST project on “Role of DNA methylation in silencing of genes in plants”

II. DBT project on “Expression of antigenic determinants of Vibrio cholerae in tomato or tobacco and evaluation of their immunogenic potential” (Joint with Prof. Akhilesh Tyagi).

III. DBT project on “Preparation of an array of ripening-related genes from tomato and other fruit crops and study of their expression profile during fruit ripening”.

IV. DBT project on “Expression of ctxB, tcpA or acfA from Vibrio cholerae in tomato and evaluation of their immunogenic potential in model animal system” (Joint with Prof. Akhilesh Tyagi).

V. DRDO project on Expression of OSISAP1 gene of rice and CBF1 gene of Arabidopsis in tomato to improve cold tolerance.

VI. DBT project on “Microarray analysis of ripening-related genes in tomato lines engineered to suppress LeMAD-RIN gene for MADS box transcription factor to study developmental regulation of ripening.

VII. DBT project on “Indian Initiative on Tomato Genome Sequencing”.

VIII. DBT project on “Manipulation of fruit ripening by phase specific gene silencing - a case study with tomato LeEIL1 and LeEIL3”.

IX. DBT project on “Over-expression of cold-induced genes encoding for mitogen activated protein kinase 3 and alternative oxidase 1 in tomato to improve cold-tolerance”.

X. DST purse grant for the project “Studies on role of epigenetic changes in gene regulation and mechanism of their interpretation for gene regulation” (Joint with Dr. S. Kapoor and Dr. S. Raghuvanshi

XI. DBT project on “Transcriptome analysis and genetic manipulation of tomato targeted at folate enhancement”.

XII. Delay of fruit ripening of tomato by expression of mutant etr1-1 gene encoding ethylene receptor of Arabidopsis

AWARDS: National Institute of Health (NIH) fellowship for post-doctoral work from 1988-1991.

Nominated as Fellow of The National Academy of Sciences, India in 2012.

LIST OF PUBLICATIONS

Research Publications

1. Kumar R., Agarwal P., Pareek A., Tyagi A.K. and Sharma A.K. (2015). Genomic Survey, Gene Expression, and Interaction Analysis Suggest Diverse Roles of ARF and Aux/IAA Proteins in Solanaceae. Plant Mol. Biol. Rep. DOI 10.1007/s11105-015-0856-z Published online first on 14th February, 2015.

2. Kumar, R. and Sharma, A. K. (2014) Ethylene perception and signaling in ripening fruit. In: Nath, P., Bouzayen, M., Mattoo, A. K. and Pech, J. C. (Eds.), Fruit ripening: Physiology, Signalling and Genomics. . Publisher: CABI, Oxfordshire, U K, pp 193-201.

3. Sharma A.K. and Sharma M.K. (2014). Plants as host for recombinant DNA. In: Das, H.K. (Ed.), Gene and its Engineering. Wiley India Pvt. Ltd. New Delhi, India, pp. 410-433.

4. Kumar R, Khuran, A and Sharma A.K. (2014). Role of plant hormones and their interplay in development and ripening of fleshy fruits. J. Exp. Bot. 65:4561–4575. Citations-2, Impact Factor 5.794.

5. Kumar R, Khurana A and Sharma A.K. (2013). Molecular regulators of fruit ripening. Stewart Postharvest Review. Published online December 2013, doi: 10.2212/spr.2013.4.6

6. Tomato Genome Consortium (2012) The tomato genome sequence provides insights into fleshy fruit evolution. Nature, 485:635-641. Citations-477, Impact Factor: 38.597.

7. Kumar, R., Agarwal, P, Tyagi, A.K. and Sharma, A.K. (2012) Genome-wide investigation and expression analysis suggest diverse roles of auxin-responsive GH3 genes during development and response to different stimuli in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum). Mol Gen. Genomics. 287:221–235. Citations-20, Impact Factor :2.831.

8. Kumar R, Sharma M.K., Kapoor S., Tyagi A.K. and Sharma A.K. (2012) Transcriptome analysis of rin mutant fruit and in silico analysis of promoters of differentially regulated genes provides insight into LeMADS-RIN-regulated ethylene-dependent as well as ethylene-independent aspects of ripening in tomato. Mol Gen. Genomics 287:189–203. Citations 19, Impact Factor : 2.831..

9. Kumar, R., Tyagi, A.K. and Sharma, A.K. (2011) Genome-wide analysis of auxin response factor (ARF) gene family from tomato and analysis of their role in flower and fruit development. Mol Gen. Genomics 285:245-260. Citations-38, Impact Factor: 2.831.

10. Sharma M.K., Kumar, R., Solanke A.U., Sharma, R. Tyagi A K. and Sharma A.K. (2010) Identification, phylogeny, and transcript profiling of ERF family genes during development and abiotic stress treatments in tomato. Mol Gen. Genomics 284:455-475.Citations 50, Impact Factor: 2.831.

11. Solanke A.U., Sharma M.K., Tyagi A K. and Sharma A.K. (2009) Characterization and phylogenetic analysis of environmental stress-responsive SAP gene family encoding A20/AN1 zinc finger proteins in tomato. Mol. Gen. Genomics 282:153-164. , Citations 25, Impact Factor : 2.831.

12. Mueller, L.A., Lankhorst, R.K, Tanksley, S.D., Giovannoni, J.J., White, R, Vrebalov, J., Fei, Z., van Eck, J., Buels, R., Mills, A., Menda, N., Tecle, I., Bombarely, A., Stack, S., Royer, S.M., Chang, S-B., Shearer, L.A., Kim, B.D., Jo, S.-H., Hur, C.-G., Choi, D., Li, C.-B., Zhao, J., Jiang, H., Geng, Y., Dai, Y., Fan, H., Chen, J., Lu, F., Shi, J., Sun, S., Chen, J., Yang, X., Lu, C., Chen, M., Cheng, Z., Li, C., Ling, H., Xue, Y., Wang, Y., Seymour, G., Bishop, G.J., Bryan, G., Rogers, J., Sims, S., Butcher, S., Buchan, D., Abbott, J., Beasley, H., Nicholson, C., Riddle, C., Humphray, S., McLaren, K., Mathur, S. Vyas, S., Solanke, A.U., Kumar, R., Gupta, V., Sharma, A.K., Khurana, P., Khurana, J.P. Tyagi, A., Sarita, Chowdhury, P., Shridhar, S., Chattopadhyay, D., Pandit, A., Singh, P., Kumar, A., Dixit, R., Singh, A., Praveen, S., Dalal, V., Yadav, M., Ghazi, I.A., Gaikwad, K., Sharma, T.R., Mohapatra, T., Singh, N.K., Szinay, D., de Jong, H., Peters, S., van Staveren, M., Datema, E., Fiers, M.W.E.J., Roeland van Ham,C.H.J., Lindhout, P., Philippot, M., Frasse, P., Regad, F., Zouine, M., Bouzayen, M., Asamizu, E., Sato, S., Fukuoka, H., Tabata, S., Shibata, D., Botella, M.A., Perez-Alonso, M., Fernandez-Pedrosa, V., Osorio, S., Mico, A., Granell, A., Zhang, Z., He, J., Huang, S., Du, Y., Qu, D., Liu, L., Liu, D., Wang, J., Ye, Z., Yang, W., Wang, G., Vezzi, A., Todesco, S., Valle, G., Falcone, G., Pietrella, M., Giuliano, G., Grandillo, S., Traini, A., D’Agostino, N., Chiusano, M. L., Ercolano, M., Barone, A., Frusciante, L., Schoof, H., Jöcker, A., Bruggmann, R., Spannagl, M., Mayer, K.X.F., Guigó, R., Camara, F., Rombauts, S., Fawcett, J.A., van de Peer, Y., Knapp, S., Zamir, D. and Stiekema W. (2009). A snap shot of the emerging tomato genome sequence: The tomato genome sequencing consortium. The Plant Genome 2:78-92. Crop Science Society of America.Citations 68.

13. Sharma, M.K., Solanke A.U., Jani D., Singh Y. and Sharma A.K. (2009). A simple and efficient Agrobacterium-mediated procedure for transformation of tomato. J. Biosc. 34:423-433, Citations 25. Impact Factor: 1.939.

14. Sharma, M.K., Jani, D., Thungapathra, M., Gautam, J.K., Meena, L.S., Singh, Y, Ghosh, A, Tyagi, A. K. and Sharma, A.K. (2008). Expression of accessory colonization factor subunit A (ACFA) of Vibrio cholerae and ACFA fused to cholera toxin B subunit in transgenic tomato (Solanum lycopersicum). J. Biotechnology 135:22-27. Elsevier B.V. Citations 19, Impact Factor: 2.884.

15. Sharma, M.K., Singh, N.K., Jani, D., Sisodia, R., Thungapathra, M., Gautam, J.K., Meena, L.S., Singh, Y, Ghosh, A, Tyagi, A. K. and Sharma, A.K. (2008). Expression of toxin co-regulated pilus subunit A (TCPA) of Vibrio cholerae and its immunogenic epitopes fused to cholera toxin B subunit in transgenic tomato (Solanum lycopersicum). Plant Cell Rep. 27:307-318. Publisher: Springer Berlin / Heidelberg. Citations 42, Impact Factor: 2.936.

16. Jani, D., Singh, N.K., Bhattacharya, S., Meena, L.S., Singh, Y., Upadhyay, S.N., Sharma A.K. & Tyagi, A.K. (2004). Studies on Immunogenic potential of plant-expressed cholera toxin B subunit. Plant Cell Reports 22:471-477. Publisher: Springer Berlin / Heidelberg. Citations 48. Impact Factor: Citations 48, Impact Factor: 2.936.

17. Jani, D., Meena, L.S., Haq, Q.M.R., Singh, Y., Sharma, A.K. and Tyagi, A.K. (2002). Expression of cholera toxin B subunit in transgenic tomato plants. Transgen. Res. 11:447-454. Publisher: Kluwer Academic Publishers, Netherlands. Citations 114, Impact Factor: 2.281.

18. Mohanty, A., Grover, M., Chaudhury, A., Haq, Q. R., Sharma, A.K., Maheshwari S.C. and Tyagi, A.K. (2000). Analysis of the activity of promoters from two photosynthesis-related genes psaF and petH of spinach in a monocot plant, rice. Indian J. Biochem. Biophys. 37: 447-452. Publisher: National Institute of Science Communication and Information Resources, CSIR, Delhi. -

19. Grover, M., Dhingra, A., Sharma, A.K., Maheshwari S.C. and Tyagi, A.K. (1999). Involvement of phytochrome(s), Ca2+ and phosphorylation in light-dependent control of transcript levels for plastid genes (psbA, psaA and rbcL) in rice (Oryza sativa). Physiol. Plant 105: 701-707. Publisher: Blackwell Publishing Ltd, Oxford

20. Grover, M., Sharma, A.K., Maheshwari S.C. and Tyagi, A.K. (1998). Regulation of plastid gene expression in rice involves calcium protein phosphatases/kinases for signal transduction. Plant Sci. 137: 185-190. Publisher: Elsevier Science, Ireland Ltd.

21. Sharma, A.K., Raghuram, N., Chandok, M.R., Das, R., and Sopory, S.K. (1994). Investigation on the nature of phytochrome induced transmitter for the regulation of nitrate reductase in etiolated leaves of maize. J. Exp. Bot. 45: 485-490. Publisher: Oxford University Press.

22. Pradhan, S., Sharma A.K., and Sopory, S.K. (1993). Cloning of BamHI repeat from Amaranthus and study of methylation in genomic DNA during dedifferentiation. Biochem. Mol. Biol. Internat. 30: 571-578. Publisher: Academic Press, Australia.

23. Kumar G. and Sharma, A.K. (1993) Localization of adjacent binding domains of cellular proteins over the minute virus of mice P4 promoter by site-specific photoaffinity labelling. Gene 127: 237-242. Publisher: Elsevier Science Publishers B. V.