Subhash Chandra Lakhotia

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Subhash verified their affiliation via an institutional email.

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• Ph.D.
• Distinguished Professor at Banaras Hindu University

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is an age-related neurodegenerative disorder, characterized by progressive loss of cognitive functions and memory. Excessive intake of aluminum chloride in drinking water is associated with amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles in the brain, which are the hallmark of AD. We have evaluated brain energy metabolism in al...

Most of the academics in India (and elsewhere) would be annoyingly familiar with daily emails in their inboxes inviting submission of research articles to a journal for rapid (or even ultra-rapid) publication for a fee, or inviting participation in some conference. There are several common features of such mails inviting articles for publication. M...

The earlier three articles of this series discussed the adoption of cell theory and chromosomal basis of biological inheritance and establishment of basic principle of genetics, mostly using the Drosophila model. This article narrates how cytologists working during the last quarter of 19th century and using ‘primitive’ compound microscopes to study...

The sev-Gal4 driver is widely used in Drosophila to express the target gene in specific subsets of cells in ommatidial units of the developing eye. A 2015 report (Ray and Lakhotia, J. Genet. 94, 407–416) from our laboratory claimed that besides the eye disc cells, the sev-Gal4 (Bloomington stock 5793) also expresses in eight pairs of dorsomedial neu...

The first article in this series discussed the genesis of ‘Cell theory’. This theory, which identified cells as building blocks of all animals and plants, was widely known among biology researchers by 1850s. However, the cell division process or production of gametes or their role in hereditary transmission of diverse biological characters remained...

Molecular biology originated in the 1930s and 1940s and gained momentum in the 1950s and 1960s to subsequently dominate all studies in biology. Since the beginning, molecular biology studies focus on the structure and function of a gene, i.e., its molecular nature, its replication, mutation, and expression. Molecular biology’s emergence depended up...

The sev-Gal4 driver is widely used in Drosophila to express the target gene in specific subsets of cells in ommatidial units of developing eye. A 2015 report (Ray & Lakhotia, J Genet 94, 407-416) from our laboratory claimed that besides the eye disc cells, the Sev-Gal4 (Bloomington stock 5793) also expresses in 8 pairs of dorso-medial neurons and s...

Molecular biology originated in the 1930s and 1940s and gained momentum in the 1950s and 1960s to subsequently dominate all studies in biology. Since the beginning, molecular biology studies focus on the structure and function of a gene, i.e., its molecular nature, its replication, mutation, and expression. Molecular biology’s emergence depended up...

Continuing with examination of roots of molecular biology, the third article discusses how the chromosomal theory of Mendelian inheritance triggered embryologists to turn to Genetics and how the embryologist Thomas Hunt Morgan, who did not initially believe in Mendel’s factors or the chromosomal theory of inheritance or Darwin’s theory of evolution...

The 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology/ Medicine has been jointly awarded to Victor Ambros (born 1953, Silverman Professor of Natural Science at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, USA) and Gary Ruvkun (born 1952, Pro-fessor of Genetics at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, USA) for their discovery of a sm...

Sir CV Raman Memorial Lecture delivered at the Institute of Science, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi on November 7, 2024 (birth anniversary of Nobel Laureate Prof. C. V. Raman) to explain the 2024 Nobel prize winning discovery of the microRNA based post-transcriptoal regulation in 1993 by Prof. Victor Ambros and Garry Ruvkun.

Continuing with examination of roots of molecular biology, the second article discusses how the cell theory prompted studies on cell division, gamete formation, embryonic development, why Mendel’s findings on the laws of inheritance in 1865 remained unknown for 35 years, what led to their rediscovery, and finally, how the chromosomes and Mendel’s f...

In memory of Prof. Marthanda Varma Sankaran Valiathan who passed away on 17 July 2024 after completing 90 years of active life.

Biology today is at its most exciting phase, thanks to the rapid and phenomenal developments in molecular biology that facilitated, and are in turn being facilitated by, the evolution of high-throughput technological approaches. This lecture would look at some of the concepts, and mis-concepts, in the domains of classical genetics, cytology, embryo...

Experiments with Drosophila for Biology Courses, edited by two experienced fly researchers, is a full open access e-book published by the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bengaluru (India). This compilation includes lab protocols written by fly researchers in India based on their actual usage in their respective labs. Besides a primer for knowing and ha...

This chapter describes procedure for dissection of testes from adult flies and for observing different cell types in live condition to follow the dynamic changes in mitochondrial and nuclear organizations during the male germ cell development.

This chapter describes a simple and rapid method for extraction of genomic DNA from a single live fly,

This chapter describes a simple method to examine hemocytes in larval hemolymph and to monitor immune response in adult flies through creation of a scar.

This chapter describes a simple method for rapid extraction of DNA from a single fly

This chapter provides basic information about life cycle, maintenance and handling of Drosophila in the laboratory, the various online resources available for fly genetics, and the general conventions followed by fly geneticists while naming different classes of mutations, etc. (This is 2nd ed)

RNA in situ hybridization (RISH) is a cytological technique to visualize the subcellular distribution and abundance of specific RNA molecules in cultured-cells or tissues. The ability to ‘see’ the localization of specific RNA species and quantify the same in different cell types has contributed immensely to our understanding of gene expression and...

The conceptual and experimental framework of controlled mating of a model organism for genetic analysis began with Gregor Johann Mendel in 1865 but it was not fully appreciated until Thomas Hunt Morgan started his pioneering work with Drosophila in 1908. Morgan’s introduction of Drosophila to Genetics has been a ‘trend-setter’ for other genetic mod...

This chapter describes a method for preparation of mitotic chromosome spreads from brain ganglia of Drosophila larvae (This is 2nd edition)

This chapter describes preparation of polytene chromosome spreads from salivary glands of late third instar larvae of Drosophila melanogaster by squashing method and briefly describes their features and utilization. (This is 2nd edition)

A remarkable advancement in the identification of genes and their mode of actions in early embryonic morphogenesis in higher organisms occurred when in 1980, Nusslein-Volhard and her colleagues identified, through simple mutagenesis experiments, the genes which when mutated affected the early segmentation of Drosophila embryo. A comparative study o...

We describe here a simple procedure to visualize the segmental body wall muscles of Drosophila larvae which can be useful to examine effects of gene mutations or other conditions that affect skeletal muscle development, their innervations, and formation and activity of neuro-muscular junctions. (This is 2nd edition)

This chapter describes the schemes of genetic crosses to induce and isolate P-element insertional mutations in Drosophila melanogaster (this is 2nd edition)

This chapter explains the principles of the Ga4-UAS binary system of conditional gene expression in Drosophila melanogaster, illustrated with some examples for classroom experiments. (This is revised 2nd edition)

This chapter describes two approaches to study heat shock induced changes in gene expression in Drosophila melanogaster in classroom experiments: one is through examination of changes in puffing patterns in larval salivary gland polytene nuclei, and the other is through the use of transgene carrying a reporter gene placed under the hsp70 heat shock...

This chapter describes methods for immunostaining of Drosophila tissues. (This is revised 2nd edition)

This chapter describes the nail-polish imprint technique developed by Arya and Lakhotia (2006), which is a simple, rapid, inexpensive and widely used light microscope based method providing high quality images of the eye surface, generally comparable to those obtained by the conventional SEM method. It does not require any expensive facility and ca...

This chapter describes steps involved in localization of a specific gene sequence (the stress inducible hsp70 genes are taken as example here) on polytene chromosomes of Drosophila melanogaster by DNA:DNA in situ hybridization, using signal detection by chromogenic method.

The present chapter describes methods to dissect eye-antennal imaginal disc from second and third instar larvae and the developing eye form early, mid, and late pupal stages. A simple method for aceto-orcein staining of eye-antennal imaginal discs for easy visualization of the ordered pattern of developing ommatidial units during late larval and pu...

This chapter describes the series of genetic crosses required for generation of stocks in which mutant alleles of different genes mapping on the same chromosome of Drosophila melanogaster are genetically recombine .

A simple method for visualizing the IFMs in adult Drosophila flies is described in this chapter.

The G-TRACE system permits tracing lineages of cells in Drosophila. This chapter describes principle of the G-TRACE approach and illustrates its use taking example of the division patterns of the adult midgut progenitors present in the hindgut proliferation zone in the late larval gut.

This chapter describes the phototaxis assay in fruit flies. Provides detailed method to access the visual function of Drosophila through phototaxis assay.

Research is an outcome of innate human inquisitiveness and self-driven efforts to know the unknown. The new knowledge and technology generated through research are essential for societal development and progress. To achieve sustainable development, research and communication of its output must be rooted in integrity and appropriate ethical conduct...

C-value paradox refers to the lack of correlation between biological complexity and the intuitively expected protein-coding genomic information or DNA content. Here I discuss five questions about this paradox: i) Do biologically complex organisms carry more protein-coding genes? ii) Does variable accumulation of selfish/ junk/ parasitic DNA underli...

C-value paradox refers to the lack of correlation between biological complexity and the intuitively expected protein-coding genomic information or DNA content. Here I discuss five questions about this paradox. i) do biologically complex organisms carry more protein-coding genes? ii) Can accumulation of selfish/ junk/ parasitic DNA explain the c-val...

Publication of research output in peer-reviewed journals is essential. It should be freely and fully accessible to all researchers and other interested readers for widest dissemination. The research publication ecosystem has changed in recent decades with commercial publishers largely taking over the journal publication from academic institutions a...

Oncogenic cells recruit diverse cellular survival machineries, including the highly conserved heat shock proteins (Hsps), to counter stressful conditions during tumour progression. Despite important roles of Hsps in several cancers, poor understanding of their regulation leaves major gaps in identifying mechanisms of cellular stress responses explo...

Kishor Patwardhan’s "confession" in this journal [1] has initiated the expected debate, which I hope leads to some good developments for the teaching and practice of Ayurveda. Before, commenting on this issue, I should myself confess that I am neither formally trained in Ayurveda nor practising it. A basic research interest in Ayurvedic biology [2]...

In the background of limited studies on noncoding RNAs in Drosophila oogenesis, we show developmentally active hsr ω lncRNA gene to be essential in oogenesis and ovulation. The near-null hsr ω ⁶⁶ females, and ovaries with down- or up-regulated hsr ω display varyingly perturbed oogenesis including fewer ovarioles, high apoptosis, poor actin nuclear-...

Heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoproteins (hnRNPs) are a family of RNA-binding proteins that modulate multiple aspects of gene activity and RNA processing, including transcription, splicing, localization, translation, and decay of RNA. Interaction of hnRNPs with RNA is a highly dynamic but regulated process. Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP)-depend...

The pioneering studies carried out on heat shock-induced synthesis of specific proteins in the early 1970s did not identify any Hsp60 family protein in Drosophila. By the early 1980s, although the members of Hsp60 family of heat shock proteins (Hsp) were identified in a wide range of eukaryotes as homologs of the bacterial GroEL, none was known in...

Genetics, emerging as a branch of biology at the beginning of the 20th century to study biological inheritance, has evolved into an important discipline that encompasses all aspects of structure and function of the hereditary genetic information. Consequently, it has impacted every area of biology leading to the integration of its different fields,...

Research is an outcome of innate human inquisitiveness and the self-driven efforts to know the unknown. The new knowledge and technology generated through research are essential for societal development and progress. In order to achieve sustainable development, research and communication of its output must be rooted in integrity and appropriate eth...

Internet and digital technologies have unleashed unprecedented speed and power for sharing new information across the globe in real time. This has generated great hopes about improving the learning outcomes even in remote places. In view of the perceived potential of digital technology in providing quality education at a mass scale in densely popul...

The establishment of a Department of Biochemistry at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in 1921 is an example of the remarkable far-sighted vision of IISc, making it a unique institution in India. Reminiscences of its alumni, compiled in this e-book as part of the department’s centenary celebrations, justify the vision with which this depart...

Cancer cells generally overexpress heat shock proteins (Hsps), the major components of cellular stress response, to overcome and survive the diverse stresses. However, the specific roles of Hsps in initiation and establishment of cancers remain unclear. Using loss of Lgl-mediated epithelial tumorigenesis in Drosophila, we induced tumorigenic somati...

Cancer cells generally overexpress heat shock proteins (Hsps), the major components of cellular stress response, to overcome and survive the diverse stresses. However, the specific roles of Hsps in initiation and establishment of cancers remain unclear. Using loss of Lgl-mediated epithelial tumorigenesis in Drosophila, we induced tumorigenic somati...

The pioneering studies on heat shock induced synthesis of specific proteins carried out in early 1970s did not identify any Hsp60 family protein in Drosophila. By the early 1980s, although members of the Hsp60 family of heat shock proteins (Hsp) were identified in a wide range of eukaryotes as homologs of the bacterial GroEL, none was known in Dros...

This article provides a short account of my experiences in Ayurvedic Biology research and a brief discussion on issues, which in my view, as a basic researcher, are limiting a wider acceptance of ayurveda. Intense and unbiased interactions between basic scientists and ayurveda practitioner are greatly desired for its transformation from an experie...

Heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoproteins (hnRNPs) are a family of RNA binding proteins that modulate multiple aspects of gene activity and RNA processing, including transcription, splicing, localization, translation, and decay of RNA. Interaction of hnRNPs with RNA is a highly dynamic but regulated process. Poly(ADP-Ribose) Polymerase (PARP) depend...

Predatory journals, whose sole objective is to earn money from hapless authors, have become a matter of concern. Attempts by scholarly societies and institutions to curb this menace led them to evolve and avoid detection. Many such unethical journals, variously named in the absence of common criteria, even gained ‘legitimacy’ through listing in sta...

AYUSH-64, an Ayurvedic poly-herbal formulation, originally developed to treat malaria, has recently attracted serious attention worldwide. It is one among the few herbs and formulations drawn from Ayurveda that has recently been permitted to enter into clinical trials related to prophylaxis and add-on intervention in COVID-19 cases. The other chose...

Cancer cells experience a variety of stresses like hypoxia, lack of nutrients, DNA damage and immune responses, which trigger several processes to drive genomic instability and mutation, alterations in gene expression programs, and reprogramming of the metabolic pathways to escape growth inhibition signaling, and acquire resistance to the immune su...

The Ayurvedic practitioners, rather than dogmatically following and teaching the so-called foundation pillars of Ayurveda, need to come out of their own shell to rediscover the great advantages that the Ayurvedic practices can offer if rationally connected with contemporary understanding of biological and material world.

The hsrω gene of Drosophila melanogaster, an early discovered non-coding developmentally active and stress-inducible gene, has pleiotropic actions through its multiple nuclear and cytoplasmic non-coding transcripts. With a view to understand this diverse functions and mechanisms of actions of this gene, we generated a series of transgenic lines for...

This essay discusses what is research, why is research a social responsibility, why conduct of research needs ethical considerations and factors that contribute to unethical conduct in research. It also considers how the codes for research integrity and ethical conduct evolved and what may be long-term damaging impact of unethical conduct in resear...

In order to understand the health promotive, rejuvenative and disease preventive approach of the Ayurvedic system of medicine in the light of current principles, we examined two Rasayana formulations, viz., Kalayanaka Ghrita (KG) and Saraswata Ghrita (SG) for their effects in Alzheimer's (AD) and Huntington's (HD) neurodegenerative disease models o...

Early genetic studies with Drosophila revealed similar mutant phenotypes for many X-linked genes, in males with one and in females with two copies of the mutant allele following the XY/XX mode of sex determination. These observations led to evocation of the phenomenon of dosage compensation. By the 1960s, contrasting theories were advanced by H. J....

Published at: Confluence (Indian Academy of Sciences, Bengaluru). All citizens have a right to know the output of academic research funded through public money. However, the pay-walls between the research output and readers have become much more formidable barriers in recent years. Authors and/or their institutions, and readers thus have to shell...

The book 'Experiments in Animal behaviour-Cutting-edge research at trifling cost' authored by Raghavendra Gadagkar, and published by the Indian Academy of Sciences (Bengaluru, India) is a collection of sixteen articles written by the author during the past few years for Resonance, a journal of inter-disciplinary science education devoted to explain...

Early genetic studies with Drosophila revealed similar mutant phenotypes for many X-linked genes in males with one and females with two copies of the mutant allele following the XY/XX mode of sex determination. These observations led to evocation of the phenomenon of dosage compensation. By the 1960s contrasting theories were advanced by H. J. Mull...

This essay discusses what is research, why is research a social responsibility, why conduct of research needs ethical considerations and factors that contribute to unethical conduct in research. It also considers how the codes for research integrity and ethical conduct evolved and what may be long-term damaging impact of unethical conduct in resear...

Cells incurring oncogenic hits are often eliminated by cell death via built-in anti-cancer defense mechanisms, broadly termed as intrinsic tumor suppression (ITS). Identification of genetic modifiers of ITS-induced cell death would provide better understanding of inherent tumor-resistance and/or susceptibility. Using a Drosophila model of loss of a...

The extent of original medical research in India remains sub-optimal despite competence and facilities. One of the factors could be ignorance about, and a general lack of rational appreciation of India's traditional knowledge systems (TKS), which could otherwise be a good source of new ideas, and thus innovation. The existing silos do not allow suf...

A university is a place where scholars and teachers participate for the advancement, acquisition, and communication of knowledge in a liberal spirit and thus prepare students for their chosen professions and other aspects of life. Besides disseminating knowledge, universities also 'create' new knowledge through research and consequently, provide pl...

Review of a full open access e-book DISHA: A Career Resource Book for Life Science and Biotechnology Students by Suman Govil and IndiaBioscience, Bengaluru. 2020

The developmentally active and cell-stress responsive hsrω locus in Drosophila melanogaster carries two exons, one omega intron, one short translatable open reading frame (ORFω), long stretch of unique tandem repeats and an overlapping mir-4951 near its 3′ end. It produces multiple long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) using two transcription start and fou...

This lecture explains the basic principles of confocal microscopy, including multi-photon microscopy. A video of this lecture can be seen at https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=2EdKtB-CRY8

This presentation describes basic principles of bright-field, dark-field, phase-contrast, DIC and fluorescence microscopy. A video based on this presentation can be seen at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1WcCit6SHs&feature=em-comments.

Educational system in the country is under severe strain. A variety of reasons are contributing to the declining quality of education being imparted so that more and more of the young degree holders turn out to be unemployable by industry as well as academia. A common refrain of most academic institutions that admit young students to PhD courses in...

The developmentally active and cell-stress responsive hsromega locus in Drosophila melanogaster carries two exons, one omega intron, one short translatable open reading frame ORFomega, long stretch of unique tandem repeats and an overlapping mir-4951 near its 3' end. It produces multiple lncRNAs using two transcription start and four termination si...

The outcome of deliberation on various aspects of publication and free access to scientific literature by a panel of nominated fellows from three science academies, viz. Indian National Science Academy, Indian Academy of Sciences, The National Academy of Sciences India, and expert invitees are presented.

Biology is study of living things to understand i) what the living organisms are? ii) how they differ from non-living matter? iii) how they came into existence? iv) what ensures their perpetuation? v) what generates the diversity? vi) why are biological machines so efficient? vii) what keeps them “organized” in the face of entropy? Some of the rea...

Seven decades of Fly research in India- from modest beginning to vibrant community Subhash C. Lakhotia Cytogenetics Laboratory, Department of Zoology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi 221005, India Drosophila as a model for cytogenetic research was introduced in India after 1950. SP Ray-Chaudhuri, Muller’s student, started fly lab at Calcutta Un...

In recent times, launching of new research Journals has become common and also worrisome. Increasing demands and specializations require new research Journals. Thus while new Journals are welcome, the worry stems from the fact that a majority of the newly launched Journals have unscrupulous commercial interests rather than their being interested in...

Cell is an extremely crowded space. It is indeed amazing, from physical and chemical points of views, that cells do what they do in spite of the extreme diversity of different kinds of molecules and their numbers that co-exist without unwanted interactions in the small and densely packed volume. As early as 1899, E. B. Wilson suggested that the 'pr...

As part of our studies on interactions of the lncRNA hsrω with different components of Ras/MAPK pathways (Ray et al., 2019b), we examined genetic interactions between rl[1] and hsrω. We found that a small proportion, ~6 and 8% of rl[1]/Act5C-GAL4; +/+ and rl[1]/rl[1] flies, respectively, showed absence of one or more humeral bristles; incidence of...

Background Dilp8‐mediated inhibition of ecdysone synthesis and pupation in holometabolous insects maintains developmental homeostasis through stringent control of timing and strength of molting signals. We examined reasons for normal pupation but early pupal death observed in certain cases. Results Overexpression of activated Ras in developing eye...

Ayurveda, practiced for several thousands of years is not only a health-care system but also a way of life. Together, they are stated to promote healthy life. Charaka is believed to have consolidated and formalized, a few thousand years ago, the then available knowledge to establish the basic philosophy of Ayurveda as well as to prepare a remarkabl...

A university is a place where knowledge is disseminated in a liberal spirit by competent faculty to post-school students and where new knowledge is created through research. Except for a few higher education institutions in India that teach at post-graduate as well as under-graduate levels, most universities engage students at post-graduate levels...

Background: Dilp8-mediated ecdysone synthesis inhibition and pupation in holometabolous insects maintains developmental homeostasis through stringent control of timing and strength of moulting signals. We examined reasons for normal pupation but early pupal death observed in certain cases. Published in DEVELOPMENTAL DYNAMICS 10.1002/dvdy.102

We appreciate the assertive comments of Ranganath. We agree with his observation that the proposed division of science as ‘AYUSH’. and ‘non-AYUSH’ is not only arbitrary and unnatural, but also un-productive, detrimental and regressive to the growth of knowledge as a whole. Research gets biased if one decides to disrespect, disregard and discard ide...

We exploited the high Ras activity induced differentiation of supernumerary R7 cells in Drosophila eyes to examine if hsrω lncRNAs influence active Ras signaling. Surprisingly, either down- or up-regulation of hsrω lncRNAs in sev-GAL4>RasV12 expressing eye discs resulted in complete pupal lethality and substantially greater increase in R7 photorece...

A recent ‘Advisory’ (F. No. Z.2502310912018-DCC (AYUSH) dated April 2, 2019) issued by the Ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (AYUSH) expresses concerns at publication of research papers and scientific studies on AYUSH drugs and treatments “by non-AYUSH scientists/researchers with unfounded statements & conclusi...

We examined interactions between the 83 kDa heat-shock protein (Hsp83) and hsrω long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) in hsrω 66 Hsp90GFP homozygotes, which almost completely lack hsrω lncRNAs but over-express Hsp83. All +/+; hsrω 66 Hsp90GFP progeny died before the third instar. Rare Sp/CyO; hsrω 66 Hsp90GFP reached the third instar stage but phenocopied...

Mankind's concern for health since the beginning of civilization led each community to develop its own health/medical care system. Ayurveda, the oldest and a well-documented Indian health-care system, is being practiced for several thousand years. It is expected that the system would have had an evidence-based origin. However, in the current perspe...

The practice of authors or their funders paying for readers to read the work remains a fertile ground for may unwarranted practices and consequences.

This chapter considers ethical issues related to selection of topic for research, collaborations, sharing of credits, mentoring young faculty, and relation between supervisor and doctoral students

This chapter considers ethical issues about authorship, editing, reviewing and publishing

Recent advances in high-throughput technologies have revealed that although major portions of genomes in all eukaryotes transcribe, only a very small fraction of the transcripts encodes proteins. The rest, with no protein coding ability, are noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs). Numerous studies in recent decades have shown that, besides the classically known r...