Research Projects

The temperature rise in a changing climate is a foremost threat to crop productivity, particularly winter crops like Indian mustard (Brassica juncea). B. juncea is an oilseed crop, widely cultivated in the Indian subcontinent (UP, MP, and Rajasthan) and critical for India’s economy and food security. During crop establishment or flowering and seed-setting, vulnerable plant development and flower abortion are detrimental to productivity with appreciable loss in seed yield due to high ambient temperatures, prolonged summer, and reduced winter. Therefore, understanding the molecular mechanisms by which plants sense and respond to elevated temperatures is crucial, which could help us develop heat-resilient crops and support more sustainable farming. Thermomorphogenesis is a critical developmental adaptation that enables plants to respond to heat stress with morphological changes such as hypocotyl elongation and early flowering. Recent discoveries suggested Early Leaf Flowering 3 (ELF3) role as a regulator in thermomorphogenesis in Arabidopsis. Interestingly, ELF3 performs these regulatory functions due to their prionogenic properties, having a prion-like domain (PrD), ultimately influencing key genes like PIF4, which acts like a control switch for how plants adjust their growth in response to heat. PrD, amyloid proteins (characteristics Q/N rich segments), undergo conformational changes, when aggregating, can function as heritable components and are involved in stress responses, signalling, and development. However, the prion-like proteins and functional significance of ELF3 in Brassica juncea remain unexplored. In our preliminary study, we identified eight ELF3 homologs in the B. juncea genome with prion-like features based on the homology search against AtELF3 PrD as a query, suggesting functional relevance. However, their role in thermomorphogenesis and stress adaptation in B. juncea needs to be elucidated. This research project aims to investigate the functional role and its prionogenic properties of Early Leaf Flowering 3 (ELF3) in B. juncea, with an emphasis on their regulatory function in flowering time and heat stress tolerance under heat stress. Our approach will involve the multidisciplinary approach including bioinformatics, molecular biology, and plant functional genomics, to address the stress tolerance potential of BjELF3s. Characterization of BjELF3, followed by spatio-temporal expression studies using qRT-PCR, focus on its interaction with key regulators such as PIF4 using a heterologous system, and the development of transgenic A. thaliana lines will acquire the knowledge about ELF3 protein-based stress adaptive mechanisms. Outcomes of this research will pave a way to develop stress-tolerant crops, addressing critical challenges related to climate change and food security.