Publications by authors named "Melvin Prasad"

Article Synopsis
  • Zinc finger protein 3 (ZFP3) regulates plant growth and development by responding to abscisic acid signals and affecting photomorphogenic processes during germination.
  • * Overexpressing ZFP3 led to reduced plant growth, limited leaf cell expansion, and affected root hair development; however, mutants showed minimal differences in growth, likely due to redundancy among related ZFP proteins.
  • *RNA sequencing revealed that ZFP3 downregulated gene sets important for cell wall biogenesis and root hair formation, indicating its role in cellular differentiation and vegetative development in plants.*
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Plants, being sessile, are prone to genotoxin-induced macromolecule damage. Among the inevitable damaging agents are reactive carbonyls that induce glycation of DNA, RNA and proteins to result in the build-up of advanced glycated end-products. However, it is unclear how plants repair glycated macromolecules.

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Rhizobacteria from pearl millet were screened to produce 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate (ACC) deaminase and to evaluate its role in alleviating drought stress. Amongst 96 isolates, 28 were positive for ACC deaminase production, with MMR04 offering maximum activity of 2196.23 nmol of α-ketobutyrate produced mg of protein h.

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MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of endogenously expressed non-coding, ~21 nt small RNAs involved in the regulation of gene expression in both plants and animals. Most miRNAs act as negative switches of gene expression targeting key genes. In plants, primary miRNAs (pri-miRNAs) transcripts are generated by RNA polymerase II, and they form varying lengths of stable stem-loop structures called pre-miRNAs.

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A total of ten 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate (ACC) deaminase producing PGPR isolates were selected and evaluated for the induction of drought stress tolerance in tomato. Among the selected PGPR, maximum seed (laboratory) and plant growth promotion (greenhouse) was observed in tomato seeds bacterized with Bacillus subtilis Rhizo SF 48. The genomic study confirmed the presence of ACC deaminase gene in Rhizo SF 48 and the obtained sequence was deposited to the NCBI database with the Accession No.

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Domestication of rice () included conversion of perennial wild species with few seeds to short plants that produced abundant seeds. Most domestication-associated changes were due to variations in transcription factors and other key proteins such as enzymes. Here, we show that multiple yield-related traits associated with rice domestication are linked to micro (mi) RNA-mediated regulation.

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Salicylic acid (SA) is a hormone connected with various cellular functions including the fight against invading pathogens. Priming of seeds pre-sowing is a very simple method to the farmers' to produce better growth, yield and manage the pathogens. The present study was aimed to determine the growth and disease resistance ability in brinjal seeds primed with different concentrations (0.

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Methylglyoxal (MG) is a key signaling molecule resulting from glycolysis and other metabolic pathways. During abiotic stress, MG levels accumulate to toxic levels in affected cells. However, MG is routinely detoxified through the action of DJ1/PARK7/Hsp31 proteins that are highly conserved across kingdoms and mutations in such genes are associated with neurodegenerative diseases.

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Downy mildew caused by Sclerospora graminicola is a devastating disease of pearl millet. Based on candidate gene approach, a set of 22 resistance gene analogues were identified. The clone RGPM 301 (AY117410) containing a partial sequence shared 83% similarity to rice R-proteins.

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Unlabelled: Downy mildew is one of the severe diseases of pearl millet, globally affecting its commercial production. Priming of seeds of a susceptible cultivar of pearl millet with β-aminobutyric acid (BABA) and Pseudomonas fluorescens has reduced the downy mildew disease incidence level under field studies. In the current study, proteomic approach was used to elucidate the poorly studied resistance mechanism in these elicitor primed pearl millet seeds in response to Sclerospora graminicola infection.

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Polygalacturonase-inhibitor proteins (PGIPs) are important plant defense proteins which modulate the activity of microbial polygalacturonases (PGs) leading to elicitor accumulation. Very few studies have been carried out towards understanding the role of PGIPs in monocot host defense. Hence, present study was taken up to characterize a native PGIP from pearl millet and understand its role in resistance against downy mildew.

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Plant mitogen-activated protein kinases (MPKs) transduce signals required for the induction of immunity triggered by host recognition of pathogen-associated molecular patterns. We isolated a full-length cDNA of a group B MPK (PgMPK4) from pearl millet. Autophosphorylation assay of recombinant PgMPK4 produced in Escherichia coli confirmed it as a kinase.

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Mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascade-mediated signalling is essential in the establishment of resistance towards pathogens. The present study compared MAPK activities in a compatible and incompatible interaction between pearl millet [Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R.

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Four organotin(IV) complexes with 2-(2-hydroxybenzylideneamino)isoindoline-1,3-dione (L(1)), and 4-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzylideneamino-N-(pyrimidin-2-yl)benzenesulfonamide (L(2)) were synthesized and well characterized by analytical and spectral studies. The synthesized compounds were tested for antimicrobial activity by disc diffusion method. The DNA binding of the complexes 1 and 3 with CT-DNA has been performed with absorption spectroscopy, which showed that both the complexes are avid binders of CT-DNA.

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