My Phd work focused on transcriptome mining, coupled with the combinatorial expression of terpenoid pathway enzymes in medicinal plants or in heterologous hosts such as tobacco or in the hairy-roots system. I was also involved in deciphering the role of drought stress in exacerbating dry root rot (DRR) disease caused by Macrophomina phaseolina in chickpea. At CPSBB, I will be evaluating a wide range of phenotypic, and metabolic traits followed by transcriptomic profiling in two genome-wide association (GWAS) panels and two backcrossed inbred lines (BILs) populations for both tomato and pepper. The identified genes will be subsequently validated by CRISPR-Cas9 editing technologies and field trials.

Selected Publications:

1. Vadivelmurugan Irulappan, Manu Kandpal, Kumud Saini, Avanish Rai, Aashish Ranjan, Senjuti Sinharoy, Muthappa Senthil-Kumar* (2022). Drought stress exacerbates fungal colonization and endodermal invasion and dampens defense responses to increase dry root rot in chickpea. Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions https://doi.org/10.1094/MPMI-07-21-0195-FI.
2. Avanish Rai, Vadivelmurugan Irulappan and Muthappa Senthil-Kumar (2022). Dry root rot of chickpea: A disease favored by drought. Plant disease https://doi.org/10.1094/PDIS-07-21-1410-FE. (Feature Article)
3. Rai, A. and Nagegowda, D. (2021). Non-radioactive Assay to Determine Product Profile of Short- chain Isoprenyl Diphosphate Synthases. Bio-protocol 11(1): e3874.
4. Kumar, S.R.*, Rai, A*., Bomzan, D.P*., Kumar, K., et al. (2020). A plastid‐localized bona fide geranylgeranyl diphosphate synthase plays a necessary role in monoterpene indole alkaloid biosynthesis in Catharanthus roseus. The Plant Journal, 103: 248-265. *Joint first author
5. Kilambi, H.V., Manda, K.*, Rai, A*., Charakana, C., Bagri, J., Sharma, R., and Sreelakshmi, Y. (2017). Green-fruited Solanum habrochaites lacks fruit-specific carotenogenesis due to metabolic and structural blocks. Journal of Experimental Botany, 68(17), pp.4803-4819. *Equal contribution.
6. Singh, A. K., Kumar, S. R., Dwivedi, V., Rai, A., Pal, S., Shasany, A. K., & Nagegowda, D. A. (2017). A WRKY transcription factor from Withania somnifera regulates triterpenoid withanolide accumulation and biotic stress tolerance through modulation of phytosterol and defense pathways. New Phytologist, 215, 1115-1131. .
7. Singh, A. K., Dwivedi, V., Rai, A., Pal, S., Reddy, S. G. E., Rao, D. K. V., & Nagegowda, D. A. (2015). Virus‐induced gene silencing of Withania somnifera squalene synthase negatively regulates sterol and defence‐related genes resulting in reduced withanolides and biotic stress tolerance. Plant biotechnology journal, 13(9), 1287-1299.
8. Rai, A., Smita, S. S., Singh, A. K., Shanker, K., & Nagegowda, D. A. (2013). Heteromeric and homomeric geranyl diphosphate synthases from Catharanthus roseus and their role in monoterpene indole alkaloid biosynthesis. Molecular plant, 6(5), 1531-1549.