Research Projects

India, the largest producer of chickpea, faces significant challenges due to drought, which affects its cultivation. Despite genomic innovations identifying drought tolerance traits, there is limited understanding of the molecular intricacies responsible for drought tolerance. The majority of genomic DNA is composed of "junk" DNA, which consists of repetitive DNA elements and non-protein coding genes. Advances in high-throughput sequencing technologies have identified and characterized many non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) that regulate gene expression. These ncRNAs, categorized as small ncRNAs (miRNAs) and long ncRNAs (lncRNAs, circRNA), play a crucial role in allowing plants to respond to environmental conditions. However, little is known about their interactions in planta to achieve desired changes. A regulatory network, composed of diverse biological entities, controls gene expression, and epigenetic changes involve chemical modifications of DNA and histone proteins, often facilitated by ncRNAs. These changes are dynamic and responsive to environmental cues, allowing plants to quickly adapt to the environment. The potential for these changes to confer an adaptive memory to plants is also underexplored. This project aims to gain novel insights into how these variables interact in vivo to alter target gene expression and achieve desired phenotypes.