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Curriculum vitae

Plant Morphogenesis Lab

Prakash KUMAR Professor Contact Information: Dept of Biological Sciences National University of Singapore 14 Science Drive 4, Singapore 117543 Tel: 65162859 Fax: 67792486 email: dbskumar@nus.edu.sg

Research Areas:

Plant Development, Tissue Culture, Plant Physiology and Molecular Biology.

Research Interests:

Our main research focus areas come under physiological and molecular aspects of the regulation of shoot development. Induction of adventitious shoot buds from cultured explants is an important technique used in biotechnological improvement of plants. We use Arabidopsis, Petunia and rice as experimental systems. Additionally, we are interested in AFLP and microsatellite markers for plant systematics and population genetics.

Recently, we have initiated some work on plant hormone signaling on shoot development with special focus on cytokinins and gibberellins. We have discovered a cytokinin binding protein, whose level of expression significantly affects plant biomass and seed yield. We are currently studying cytokinin signal transduction intermediates that might interact with this protein. Our data from Arabidopsis and rice show that over twofold increase in biomass (number of branches/tillers) and seed yield per plant can be obtained by suppressing the gene for this protein (Homology-dependent Gene silencing 1 or HOG1). We are exploring the use of this gene for improvement of various crop plants, including, leafy vegetables, ornamental plants, fodder and plants used for cellulosic ethanol (biofuel) production.

Besides helping to gain a better understanding of shoot development, we hope that our work can contribute towards crop improvement in the long-term.

Current Projects:

Our current research projects come under the following themes:

• Cloning genes that regulate shoot development.
• Phytohormone (cytokinin & gibberellin) signaling intermediates and shoot development.
• Transgenic plants for functional analysis of selected cDNA (e.g., HOG1, AGL24).
• DNA markers (e.g., AFLP, microsatellites) for plants.

Research Accomplishments

Full List of Publications

Membership on Editorial Boards

• Editor, Plant Cell Reports (Springer, from Jan 1999 onwards)
• Editor, Plant Biotechnology Reports (Springer, from April 2007 onwards)
• Member, Editorial Advisory Board, The Open Plant Science Journal (from April 2007 onwards)
• Member, Board of Editors - UNE Asia Papers (Electronic journal of the University of New England Asia Center, Armidale, Australia - from December 2001)
• Reviews Editor, Plant Cell Reports (Springer, from April 2002 - Nov 2008)
• Editor, Plant Cell, Tissue and Organ Culture - (Jan 1999 - Jan 2006)

Selected Publications:

• Godge MR, Kumar BD, Kumar PP. Arabidopsis HOG1 gene and its petunia homolog PETCBP act as key regulators of yield parameters. Plant Cell Reports (2008) (published online).

• Liu C, Chen H, Er HL, Soo HM, Kumar PP, Han JH, Liou YC, Yu H. Direct interaction of AGL24 and SOC1 integrates flowering signals in Arabidopsis. Development (2008) 135: 1481-1491.

• Nair DG, Fry BG, Alewood P, Kumar PP, Kini RM. Antimicrobial activity of omwaprin, a new member of waprin family of snake venom proteins. Biochemical Journal (2007) 402: 93-104.

• Wang Y, Kumar PP. Characterization of two ethylene receptors PhERS1 and PhETR2 from petunia: PhETR2 regulates timing of anther dehiscence. Journal of Experimental Botany (2007) 58: 533-544.

• Xu Y,  Teo LL, Zhou J, Kumar PP,  Yu H. Floral organ identity genes in the orchid Dendrobium crumenatum. Plant Journal (2006) 46: 54-68.

• Pung YF, Wong PTH, Kumar PP, Hodgson WC, Kini RM. Ohanin, a novel protein from king cobra venom induces hypolocomotion and hyperalgesia in mice. Journal of Biological Chemistry (2005) 280:13137-13147.

• Yu H, Ito T, Zhao Y, Peng J, Kumar PP, Meyerowitz EM. Floral homeotic genes are targets of gibberellin signaling in flower development. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., USA (2004) 101:7827-7832.

• Zhang P, Pwee KH, Tan HT, Kumar PP. Conservation of class C function of floral organ development during 300 million years of evolution from gymnosperms to angiosperms. Plant Journal (2004) 37: 566-577.

• Yu H, Kumar PP. Posttranscriptional gene silencing in plants by RNA (Invited Review Article). Plant Cell Rep (2003) 22: 167-174.

• Yu H, Xu Y, Tan EL, Kumar PP. 2002. AGAMOUS-LIKE 24, a dosage-dependent mediator of the flowering signals. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., USA. 99:16336-16341.

• Prakash AP, Kumar PP. 2002. PkMADS1 is a novel MADS-box gene regulating adventitious shoot induction and vegetative shoot development in Paulownia kawakamii. Plant Journal 29:141-151.

• Kumar, P.P., Lakshmanan, P. & Thorpe, T.A. Regulation of morphogenesis in plant tissue culture by ethylene (Review article). In Vitro Cellular and Developmental Biology-Plant (1998) 34:94-103.

• Prakash, A.P. & Kumar, P.P. Inhibition of shoot induction by 5-azacytidine and 5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine in Petunia involves DNA hypomethylation. Plant Cell Reports (1997) 16:719-724.