Dr. Naveen Kumar Singh

Plant responses to environmental stress are governed by various molecular and biochemical signal transduction processes, which act in coordination to determine tolerance or sensitivity of the whole plant. My research work is focused on the identification of key genes that influence stress tolerance of crop plants and the verification of the function of those genes using approaches like RNAi, CRISPR/Cas and overexpression lines. I am also interested in understanding how abiotic stresses like starvation, and darkness, induce premature senescence in plants.

• Publications:
1. Singh NK, Paz E, Kutsher Y, Reuveni M, Lers A (2020): Tomato T2 ribonuclease LE is involved in the response to pathogens. Molecular Plant Pathology, 21(7):895-906
2. Singh NK*, Shukla P, Kirti P (2020): A CBL-interacting protein kinase AdCIPK5 confers salt and osmotic stress tolerance in transgenic tobacco. Scientific reports, 10(1):1-14 *Corresponding author
3. Shukla P, Gautam R, Singh NK, Ahmed I, Kirti PB (2019): A proteomic study of cysteine protease induced cell death in anthers of male sterile tobacco transgenic plants. Physiology and Molecular Biology of Plants, 25(4):1073-1082
4. Shukla P, Singh NK, Gautam R, Ahmed I, Yadav D, Sharma A, Kirti PB (2017): Molecular approaches for manipulating male sterility and strategies for fertility restoration in plants. Molecular biotechnology, 59(9-10):445-457.
5. Kumar D, Rampuria S, Singh NK, Kirti PB (2016): A novel zinc‐binding alcohol dehydrogenase 2 from Arachis diogoi, expressed in resistance responses against late leaf spot pathogen, induces cell death when transexpressed in tobacco. FEBS open bio, 6(3):200-210.
6. Shukla P, Subhashini M, Singh NK, Ahmed I, Trishla S, Kirti P (2016): Targeted expression of cystatin restores fertility in cysteine protease induced male sterile tobacco plants. Plant Science, 246:52-61.
7. Kumar D, Rampuria S, Singh NK, Shukla P, Kirti P (2015): Characterization of a vacuolar processing enzyme expressed in Arachis diogoi in resistance responses against late leaf spot pathogen, Phaeoisariopsis personata. Plant molecular biology, 88(1-2):177-191
8. Shukla P, Singh NK, Kumar D, Vijayan S, Ahmed I, Kirti PB (2014): Expression of a pathogen-induced cysteine protease (AdCP) in tapetum results in male sterility in transgenic tobacco. Functional & integrative genomics, 14(2):307-317.
9. Dalal A, Vishwakarma A, Singh NK Gudla T, Bhattacharyya MK, Padmasree K, Viehhauser A, Dietz K-J, Kirti PB (2014): Attenuation of hydrogen peroxide-mediated oxidative stress by Brassica juncea annexin-3 counteracts thiol-specific antioxidant (TSA1) deficiency in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, FEBS letters, 588(4):584-593
10. Singh NK*, Kumar KRR, Kumar D, Shukla P, Kirti PB (2013): Characterization of a pathogen induced thaumatin-like protein gene AdTLP from Arachis diogoi, a wild peanut. PloS one, 8(12): e83963 *Corresponding author
11. Vijayan S, Singh NK, Shukla P, Kirti P (2013): Defensin (TvD1) from Tephrosia villosa exhibited strong anti-insect and anti-fungal activities in transgenic tobacco plants. Journal of pest science 86(2):337-344

Awards: Selected for ARO Postdoctoral fellowship, Israel in 2016