Harpal Singh

University of California, Riverside | UCR · Department of Cell Biology and Neuroscience

With the ever‐increasing world population, crop improvement is one of the most important goals of the research community. Crop productivity is known to be adversely affected by various kinds of pathogens. Different types of pathogen‐specific pesticides are commonly used to protect the crops against infection or disease but they cause extensive dama...

Real-time PCR (RT-qPCR) expression analysis is a powerful analytical technique, but for normalization of data requires the use of stable reference genes. However, suitable reference genes are still not known in the case of Phenacoccus solenopsis under variable experimental treatments. The present study focused on the identification of stable housek...

Whitefly (Bemisia tabaci) damages field crops by sucking sap and transmitting viral diseases. None of the insecticidal proteins used in genetically modified (GM) crop plants to date are effective against whitefly. We report the identification of a protein (Tma12) from an edible fern, Tectaria macrodonta (Fee) C. Chr., that is insecticidal to whitef...

A primer sequence for the preparation of insecticidal protein from Microsorium scolopendrium The present invention relates to primer sequences for the amplification of novel insecticidal gene, encoding a polypeptide which is toxic to whiteflies and lepidopteran caterpillars. Further, the present invention relates to a cDNA fragment having nucleotid...

Vitellogenin (Vg) plays vital role in oocytes and embryo development in insects. Vg is synthesized in the fat body, moves through haemolymph and accumulates in oocytes. Vitellogenin receptors (VgR) present on the surface of oocytes, are responsible for Vg transportation from haemolymph to oocytes. Here, we cloned and characterized these genes from...

A novel insecticidal protein toxic to whiteflies and lepidopteran caterpillars, toxin encoding gene and its application thereof

A process for preparation of a novel insecticidal chitinase toxic against whiteflies, its encoding nucleotides and application thereof

Bryophytes are the first land plants but are scarcely studied at the molecular level. Here, we report transcriptome sequencing and functional annotation of Dumortiera hirsuta, as a representative bryophyte. Approximately 0.5 million reads with ~195 Mb data were generated by sequencing of mRNA using 454 pyrosequencer. De novo assembly of reads yield...

Novel insecticidal chitinase protein its encoding nucleotide and application thereof

Fast-growing hairy root cultures of Picrorhiza kurroa induced by Agrobacterium rhizogenes offers a potential production system for iridoid glycosides. In present study we have investigated the effects of various nutrient medium formulations viz B5, MS, WP and NN, and sucrose concentrations (1-8%) on the biomass and glycoside production of selected...

Tomatoes are one of the most consumed crops in the whole world because of their versatile importance in dietary food as well as many industrial applications. They are also a rich source of secondary metabolites, such as phenolics and flavonoids. In the present study, we described a method to produce these compounds from hairy roots of tomato (THRs)...

RNA interference has been emerged as an utmost tool for the control of sap sucking insect pests. Systemic response is necessary to control them in field condition. Whitefly is observed to be more prone to siRNA in recent studies, however the siRNA machinery and mechanism is not well established. To identify the core siRNA machinery, we curated tran...

Plants naturally emit methanol as volatile organic compound. Methanol is toxic to insect pests; but the quantity produced by most of the plants is not enough to protect them against invading insect pests. In the present study, we demonstrated that the over-expression of pectin methylesterase, derived from Arabidopsis thaliana and Aspergillus niger,...

Embryogenesis in cotton is a difficult task due its genome dependency. We used 3 cotton cultivars (Khandwa-2, G. Cot. 10, and BC-68-2) and Coker-312 as control for regeneration. Efficient somatic embryogenesis was induced in agronomically important Indian cotton cultivars, Khandwa-2 and G. Cot. 10. For callusing in all the cultivars, different medi...

Pectin methylesterases (Pme; eC 3.1.1.11) involved in de-esterification of pectin and have applicability in food, textiles, wines, pulp, and paper industries. in the present study, we compared Pme activity of different parts of 3 Datura species and found that fruit coat showed maximum Pme activity followed by leaf and seed. Pme from leaves of D. st...

Nucleic acid sequence encoding Allium fistulosum leaf agglutinin (AFAL) is disclosed. The invention provides Allium fistulosum leaf agglutinin (AFAL) recombinant protein, its encoding nucleotides, primers and the process of preparation thereof, said recombinant protein is useful for insect control and haemagglutination activity. AFAL is found more...

A novel insecticidal chitinase protein from fern Tectaria sp., a process for preparation of the insecticidal protein and nucleic acid sequence encoding for said insecticidal protein and its application for insect control purposes.

A novel insecticidal chitinase protein its encoding nucleotide and application thereof

Peroxidases are the ubiquitous enzyme and reported to be present in all living genera. They catalyses reduction of peroxide and generate reactive oxygen species. In the present study we demonstrated that insect infestation induces peroxidase activity in sap and total soluble protein (TSP) of plant leaves. Three important crop plants viz. tomato, co...

A novel insecticidal chitinase protein its encoding nucleotide and application thereof

Explants transformation through Agrobacterium, followed by in vitro regeneration is only method used for genetic improvement of cotton. The currently used method are based on somatic embryogenesis, therefore time consuming, genotype-dependent and expensive. We report here a genotype-independent method for genetic transformation of cotton. Embryonic...

Allium sativum leaf agglutinin (ASAL) binds to several proteins in the midgut of Helicoverpa armigera and causes toxicity. Most of these were glycosylated. Six ASAL-binding proteins were selected for identification. PMF and MS/MS data showed their similarity with midgut aminopeptidase APN2, polycalins and alkaline phosphatase of H. armigera, cadher...

A protocol for induction and establishment of Agrobacterium rhizogenes mediated hairy root culture of Gossypium hirsutum was developed through infection with the A4 strain and co-cultivation on hormone-free semi-solid MS medium with B5 vitamins. It resulted in the emergence of hairy roots from the leaf explants, 21 days after infection. The transfo...

Transgenic cotton lines were developed for high-level expression of a synthetic cry1EC gene from a wound inducible promoter. The tobacco pathogenesis related promoter PR-1a was modified by placing CaMV35S promoter on its upstream in reverse orientation. The resultant chimeric promoter CaMV35S(r)PR-1a expressed constitutively and was further up-regu...