Anil Kumar

• PhD- Plant Pathogen Molecular Biology
• Postdoctoral Research Associate at Iowa State University

Plants are constantly exposed to a broad range of potential pathogens and pests and therefore have developed a highly sophisticated immune system to perceive and prevent such threats. Plants use pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) as well as nucleotide-binding and leucine-rich repeat to monitor nonself and damaged-self and altered-self patterns as...

Plant-parasitic nematodes (PPNs) impose severe biotic stress on plants by damaging roots, disrupting nutrient and water uptake, and compromising overall plant health. These pests cause an estimated 173 billion in annual agricultural losses globally, posing a serious threat to food security and emphasizing the need for effective management strategie...

Pathogens must precisely tailor their gene expression to cause infection. However, a signaling cascade from host signal to effector production has remained elusive for metazoan pathogens. Here, we show that plants contain molecular signals, termed effectostimulins, that activate the first identified regulator of plant-parasitic nematode effectors....

Pathogens must precisely tailor their gene expression to cause infection. However, a signaling cascade from host signal to effector production has remained elusive for metazoan pathogens. Here, we show that plants contain molecular signals, termed effectostimulins, that activate the first identified regulator of plant-parasitic nematode effectors....

The soybean cyst nematode (SCN; Heterodera glycines) facilitates infection by secreting a repertoire of effector proteins into host cells to establish a permanent feeding site composed of a syncytium of root cells. Among the diverse proteins secreted by the nematode, we were specifically interested in identifying proteases to pursue our goal of eng...

Research interest in the mechanisms enabling plant-parasitic nematodes to adjust their physiological performance and cope with changing temperatures has intensified in light of global warming. Here, we show that geographically distinct populations of the root-knot nematode Meloidogyne incognita, which is prevalent in the three main pepper-growing r...

The soybean cyst nematode (SCN; Heterodera glycines) facilitates infection by secreting a repertoire of effector proteins into host cells to establish a permanent feeding site composed of a syncytium of root cells. Among the diverse proteins secreted by the nematode, we were specifically interested in identifying proteases to pursue our goal of eng...

All pathogens must tailor their gene expression to their environment. Therefore, targeting host:parasite biology that regulates these changes in gene expression could open up routes to pathogen control. Here, we show that in the plant-parasitic nematode Heterodera schachtii, host signals (termed effectostimulins) within plant roots activate the mas...

The involvement of WRKY transcription factors in plant-nematode interactions, and in particular, how these WRKYs participate in regulating the complex morphological and physiological changes occurring after nematode infection, are the topic of active research. We characterized the functional role of the unstudied tomato WRKY genes SlWRKY16 and SlWR...

During parasitism, root-knot nematodes Meloidogyne spp. inject molecules termed effectors, having multifunctional roles in construction and maintenance of nematodes’ feeding sites. As an outcome of transcriptomic analysis of Meloidogyne javanica, we identified and characterized two differentially expressed genes encoding the predicted proteins MjSh...

Root-knot nematodes Meloidogyne spp. induce enlarged multinucleate feeding cells—galls—in host plant roots. Although core cell-cycle components in galls follow a conserved track, they can also be usurped and manipulated by nematodes. We identified a candidate effector in Meloidogyne javanica that is directly involved in cell-cycle manipulation—Mini...

Biotic stress is one of the major factors caused by living organisms like bacteria, fungi, viruses, insects, nematodes, arachnids and other pests and pathogens that represent a major cause of pre- and post-harvest losses in agricultural products. Various novel genetic approaches can help plants to resist these stressors. Conservation of genes among...

High irradiance and fluctuating light boons substantial risk to photosynthetic life forms by summoning responsive oxygen species (ROS). To bear the high irradiance level, plants, algae, and cyanobacteria have developed mechanisms to diminution the energy hitting at reaction centers to protect it from high irradiance by a photo-defensive system. In...

Plant tissue culture comprises all the ways to nurture the plant cell, tissue, or organ in a specific manner under an artificially created environment to produce uniform planting material in bulk. It also covers the ways by which one can improve the traits of the plant. Plant production outside the laboratory environment can be achieved through see...

The role of the 9-lipoxygenase (9-LOX)-derived oxylipins in plant defense is mainly known in solanaceous plants. In this work, we identify the functional role of the tomato divinyl ether synthase (LeDES) branch, which exclusively converts 9-hydroperoxides to the 9-divinyl ethers (DVEs) colneleic acid (CA) and colnelenic acid (CnA), during infection...

High irradiance and fluctuating light boons substantial risk to photosynthetic life forms by summoning responsive oxygen species (ROS). To bear the high irradiance level, plants, algae, and cyanobacteria have developed mechanisms to diminution the energy hitting at reaction centers to protect it from high irradiance by a photo-defensive system. In...

Plant development and growth are severely hampered by a wide array of abiotic stress situations, which includes salinity, drought, cold, heat, and many other stress conditions. This leads to the loss of yield and quality in horticultural crops. Plants have developed different ways and strategies to counter abiotic stresses, which includes the regul...

Abiotic stresses are the substantial limiting factors that negatively impact the growth and development of plants. These abiotic-stress factors individually or in combination can lead to significant crop yield loss. Plants being sessile must confront complex abiotic-stress conditions such as salinity, drought, temperature extremes, and metals. To c...

Abiotic stresses, such as drought, salinity, low or high temperature, and heavy-metal toxicity are major limiting factors of crop productivity and sustainability. Over a few decades, several traditional and modern breeding methods have been used in the development of stress-tolerant plants. However, abiotic stress tolerance is a complex trait as pl...

Abstract Root-knot nematodes (RKNs) are devastating parasites that infect thousands of plants. As RKN infection is facilitated by oesophageal gland effector genes, one such effector gene, Mi-msp2, was selected for a detailed characterization. Based on domain analysis, the Mi-MSP2 protein contains an ShKT domain, which is likely involved in blocking...

There is an urgent need to enhance agriculture productivity to feed the world’s ever-increasing population on the one hand and stresses reducing global agriculture productivity on the other hand. Hence there is only one way to boost global agriculture productivity through innovative breeding technology that can provide access to food security world...

The root-knot nematode (RKN), Meloidogyne incognita, is an obligate, sedentary endoparasite that infects a large number of crops and severely affects productivity. The commonly used nematode control strategies have their own limitations. Of late, RNA interference (RNAi) has become a popular approach for the development of nematode resistance in pla...

The nematode housekeeping genes play a key role in basic functions of nematode metabolism and development. Although substantial research on housekeeping genes has been carried out in Caenorhabditis elegans, but their genomics and transcriptomics studies in plant-parasitic nematodes (PPNs) are limited. In the present investigation, a housekeeping In...

Root-knot nematodes (RKNs) are one of the most important biotic factors limiting crop productivity in many crop plants. The major RKN control strategies include development of resistant cultivars, application of nematicides and crop rotation, but each has its own limitations. In recent years, RNA interference (RNAi) has become a powerful approach f...

Low erucic acid is a major breeding target to improve the edible oil quality in Brassica juncea. The single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in fatty acid elongase 1 (FAE1.1 and FAE1.2) gene was exploited to expedite the breeding program. The paralogs of FAE1 gene were sequenced from low erucic acid genotype Pusa Mustard 30 and SNPs were identified th...

Root-knot nematodes (Meloidogyne incognita) are obligate plant parasites, causing significant economic loss, that alter expression of host genes in order to establish and maintain their feeding sites in the roots of host plants. In the present study, a nematode-responsive-root-specific gene (AT1G26530) was identified which expressed in roots of Ara...

Root Knot Nematode RNAi