AKT

Akhilesh Kumar Tyagi

Professor and Director (ICPG)

Specialization: Plant Genomics and Biotechnology

Research Interests: Molecular Physiology; Genome Analysis; Edible Vaccine; Reproduction; Abiotic Stress

Professor Akhilesh K. Tyagi, Director, Interdisciplinary Centre for Plant Genomics, Department of Plant Molecular Biology, University of Delhi South Campus, did Ph.D. in Botany from the University of Delhi in 1983 and worked as a Post-doctoral Fellow in Germany (1984-86). He is among the few Indian plant scientists who have ventured to bring together knowledge of molecular physiology, genomics, and transgenics to study, analyze and improve crop growth and yield. He has been Coordinator of major research efforts India has undertaken in Plant Science, which include Centre for Plant Molecular Biology at South Campus, Indian Initiative for Rice Genome Sequencing, Indian Initiative on Tomato Genome Sequencing, and a network project on Rice Functional Genomics. He has over 100 publications in journals/books of high repute/impact and supervised work of several Post-graduate, Ph.D. and Post-doctoral students. Prof Tyagi has delivered over 182 invited lectures and chaired over 27 sessions in national and international meetings. In addition, he is serving on Editorial Boards of Transgenic Research, J Plant Biochemistry & Biotechnology, Indian J Biotechnology, Resonance, and PINSA.

Professor Tyagi has served as the Head, Department of Plant Molecular Biology, and the Chairman, Board of Interdisciplinary and Applied Sciences, at the University of Delhi. Besides serving on several Advisory Committees, he is also serving as Chairman of DBT-UGC Task Force on Human Resource Development as well as General Secretary, National Academy of Sciences, India and has been Vice-President of the Society for Plant Biochemistry and Biotechnology. He has also served on Organizing Committees of several national and international symposia. He is Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, India, the Indian National Science Academy, the Indian Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences. He has been given National Bioscience Award, B. P. Pal Memorial Award of NASI and Platinum Jubilee Award of ISCA, and is also a recipient of International Year of Rice 2004 Research Accomplishment Award, as well as World Technology Award as part of the International Rice Genome Sequencing Project.

Select Publications

1. Vij S, Gupta V, Kumar D, Vydianathan R, Raghuvanshi S, Khurana P, Khurana JP, Tyagi AK. Decoding the rice genome. Bioessays 28 (2006) 421-432.

2. The International Rice Genome Sequencing Project. The map-based sequence of the rice genome. Nature 436 (2005) 793-800. (Co-authored as Coordinator of the Indian Initiative for Rice Genome Sequencing)

3. Gaur T & Tyagi AK. Analysis of Arabidopsis PsbQA gene expression reveals differential role of its promoter and transcribed region in organ-specific and light-mediated regulation. Transgenic Research 13 (2004) 97-108.

4. Mukhopadyaya A, Vij S & Tyagi AK. Over-expression of a zinc-finger protein gene from rice confers tolerance to cold, dehydration, and salt stress in transgenic tobacco. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 101 (2004) 6309-6314.

5. Tyagi AK & Gaur T. Light regulation of nuclear photosynthetic genes in higher plants. Critical Reviews in Plant Sciences 22 (2003) 417-452.

6. Chen C, Presting G, Barbazuk WB, Goicoehea JL, Blackmon B, Fang G, Kim H, Frisch D, Yu Y, Higingbottom S, Phimphilai J, Phimphilai D, Thurmond S, Gaudette B, Li P, Lin J, Hartfield J, Main D, Sun S, Farrar K, Henderson C, Barnett L, Costa R, Williams B, Walser S, Atkins M, Hall C, Bancroft I, Salse J, Regad F, Mohpatra T, Singh NK, Tyagi AK, Soderlund C, Dean RA, Wing RA. An integrated physical and genetic map of the rice genome. Plant Cell 14 (2002) 537-545.

7. Mohanty A, Kathuria H, Ferjani A, Sakamoto A, Murata N, Mohanty P & Tyagi AK. Transgenics of an elite indica variety Pusa Basmati 1 harbouring codA gene are highly tolerant to salt stress. Theor Appl Genet 106 (2002)51-57.

8. Flieger K, Tyagi A, Sopory S, Cseplo A, Herrmann RG & Oelmuller R. A 42 base pair promoter fragment of the gene for subunit III of photosystem I (psaF) is crucial for its activity. Plant Journal 4 (1993) 9-18.

9. Tyagi A, Hermans J, Steppuhn J, Jansson Ch, Vater F & Herrmann RG. Nucleotide sequence of cDNA clones encoding the complete "33 kDa" precursor protein associated with the photosynthetic oxygen-evolving complex from spinach. Mol. Gen. Genet. 207 (1987) 288-293.

10. Tyagi AK & Herrmann RG. Location and nucleotide sequence of the pre-apocytochrome gene on Oenothera hookeri plastid chromosome (Euoenothera plastome I). Curr. Genet. 10 (1986) 481-486.