Paramjit Khurana

Professor and Head of the Department

E-mail: param@genomeindia.org; paramjitkhurana@hotmail.com

Specialization: Plant Biotechnology and Genomics

Research Interests

Professor Paramjit Khurana has expertise in cell and tissue culture of legumes, trees and cereals. High frequency regenerating potential has been demonstrated in several plants like Albizzia, Lathyrus, Cassia spp., Mimosa, Morus, Arabidopsis, Brassica, and cereals like sorghum, rice and wheat. Genetic transformation systems have been established in Albizzia, Morus, Arabidopsis, Brassica, sorghum, rice and wheat. A novel transformation technique of direct gene transfer via cellular permeabilization has also been established for the first time. A short-term protocol has been established in wheat for investigating the molecular mechanisms regulating auxin-induced somatic embryogenesis. The wheat leaf base system established in hexaploid wheat has been extended to the tetraploid T. durum and T. dicoccum. Transgenics have been developed in wheat for tolerance against nematode resistance and those for drought and salinity tolerance are being screened. Pioneering work has also been done in mulberry transformation for abiotic stress tolerance under the Seribiotech program of DBT. Besides this, she has hands-on experience in LPS-mediated cellular recognition during legume-Rhizobium symbiosis and on cell-to-cell communication by use of impermeant macromolecules in living cells. Pioneering work has also been done to determine role of pectins in mediating cell wall porosity in higher plants. Presently, she is one of the PI’s for the rice genome sequencing International effort and primarily responsible for the Bioinformatics aspects of the Indian endeavor, IIRGS, funded by DBT

Membership of Learned Bodies /Societies

1. Fellow, The National Academy of Sciences, Allahabad, India.

2. Life Member, Third World Organization for Women in Science, Italy.

3. Life Member of Indian Science Congress Association.

4. Life Member of National Academy of Sericultural Sciences, Bangalore.

5. Life Member, Association of Plant Tissue Culture (India).

6. Life Member of the Society of Plant Biochemistry and Biotechnology.

7. Life Member of Indian Society of Developmental Biologists.

8. External Expert, Institutional Bio-safety Committee of Jawaharlal Nehru University.

9. External Expert, Board of Research Studies of the Centre for Biotechnology, Jamia Hamdard, Hamdard University.

10. External Expert, Board of Studies, Amity Institute of Biotechnology, Amity University.

11. External Expert, Board of Studies, MMV, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi.

Select Publications

1. GHARYAL, P.K., MAHESHWARI, S.C. 1981. In vitro differentiation of somatic embryoids in a leguminous tree - Albizzia lebbeck L. Naturwissenschaften 69: 379-380.

2. GHARYAL, P.K., MAHESHWARI, S.C. 1983. Genetic and physiological influences on differentiation in tissue cultures of a legume, Lathyrus sativus. Theor. Appl. Genet. 66: 123-126.

3. GHARYAL, P.K., HO, S.C., WANG, J.L., SCHINDLER, M. 1989. Bradyrhizobium japonicum lipopolysaccharide inhibits symplastic communication in soybean (Glycine max) cells. J. Biol. Chem. 264: 12119-12121.

4. MEINERS, S., GHARYAL, P.K., SCHINDLER, M. 1991. Permeabilization of the plasma membrane and wall of soybean root cells to macromolecules. Planta 184: 443-447.

5. GANDHI, R., MAHESHWARI, S.C., KHURANA, J.P., KHURANA, P. 2001. Genetic and molecular analysis of Arabidopsis thaliana (Ecotype ‘Estland’) transformed with Agrobacterium. In Vitro Cell. Develop. Biol - Plant. 37: 629-637.

6. BHATNAGAR, S., KHURANA, P. 2003. Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation of Indian mulberry, Morus indica cv. K2: A time-phased screening strategy. Plant Cell Reports 21: 669-675.

7. MAHALAKSHMI, A., KHURANA, J.P., KHURANA, P. 2003. Rapid induction of somatic embryogenesis in leaf explants of wheat (Triticum aestivum). Plant Biotechnology 20: 267-273.

8. PATNAIK, D., KHURANA, P. 2003. Genetic transformation of Indian bread (T. aestivum) and pasta (T. durum) wheat by particle bombardment of mature embryo-derived calli. BMC Plant Biology 3: 5-16.

9. SINGH, N., RAGHUVANSHI, S., SRIVASTAVA, S.K., GAUR, A., PAL, A.K., DALAL, V., SINGH, A., GHAZI, I.A., BHARGAV, A., YADAV, DIXIT, A., BATRA, K., GAIKWAD, K., SHARMA, T.R., MOHANTY, A., BHARTI, A.K., KAPUR, A., GUPTA, V., KUMAR, D., VIJ, S., VYDIANATHAN, R., KHURANA, P., SHARMA, S., MCCOMBIE, W.R., MESSING, J., WING, R., SASAKI,T., KHURANA, P., MOHAPATRA, T., KHURANA, J.P., TYAGI, A.K. 2004. Sequence analysis of the long arm of rice chromosome 11 for rice-wheat synteny. Funct. Integr. Genomics 4: 102-117.

10. 10.VISNUDASAN, D., TRIPATHY, M.N., RAO, U., KHURANA, P. 2005. Assessment of nematode resistance in wheat transgenics expressing potato proteinase inhibitor (PIN2) gene. Transgenic Research (In Press).