Welcome to Shivaprasad's Lab

Research Overview

A number of epigenetic regulatory layers are superimposed on the genome. In plants, small RNA regulators play a major role in the establishment and maintenance of epigenetic marks. We are interested in understanding the mechanism of small RNA biogenesis, their functions and their role in establishment of epigenetics using a number of model systems.

Latest News

1.  Congrats Shiva for getting elected to the prestigious Indian Academy of Science (IAS), Bangalore. With this he is now an elected member of all three Science Academies in India. 

2. Congrats Vivek, Aravind and Archana for this nice review on histone variants, online in Biochim Biophys Acta (BBA), (December, 2023).

3. Kudos!!! Vivek defended his PhD thesis titled "Epigenetic implications of processes controlled by DNA dependent RNA Polymerase IV and histone variants in rice".

4. Congratulations Shiva for getting inducted as a fellow of esteemed Indian National Science Academy (INSA), New Delhi. 

5. Congratulations Avik! His work describing a new upstream regulator of imprinting in rice titled, "Upstream regulator of genomic imprinting in rice endosperm is a small RNA-associated chromatin remodeler" is now available at bioRxiv. Comments are welcome! (September, 2023) 

6. Congratulations Ashwin! His new review on "Novel regulators of mitochondrial integrity" is now accepted for publication in Journal of Biosciences (August, 2023)

7. Congratulations Vivek! Part 2 of his thesis is now available at bioRxiv. His work reveals a novel, rice-specific H4 variant that employs H4K5Ac to modulate salt stress response. Comments are invited. (August, 2023)

8. Congratulations Vivek ! A comprehensive doctoral thesis has been submitted for evaluation. All the best. (August, 2023) 

9. Kudos!!! Harshith’s work describing a signalling cascade regulated by OsPSKR that dictates balance between growth and defense response upon wounding in rice is now available on bioRxiv. Comments are welcome! (June 2023)

10. Congratulations Vivek for a stellar work, "Plant Polymerase IV sensitizes chromatin through histone modifications to preclude spread of silencing into protein-coding domains" now published in  Genome Research. This super effort documents a new role of PolIV beyond RdDM in chromatin boundary regulation, and describes a new category of small RNAs called 'PolIV-suppressed sRNAs'. (June 2023)

11. The news report about Ashwin's recent paper on Begomoviral Beta C1, is now available at Indian Science News (April, 2023).

12. Congrats Vivek for getting travel grant from SERB, to attend Mendel early career symposium going to be held at Vienna, Austria. 

13. Congrats Harshith for getting travel grant to attend the 33rd International Conference on Arabidopsis Research  ICAR-2023, going to be held at CHIBA, Japan. 

14. Ashwin's 2nd paper from his PhD titled, "Begomoviral βC1 orchestrates organellar genomic instability to augment viral infection by hijacking host RecA" is now accepted for publication in The Plant Journal, Congrats.

15. Our recent collaborative work titled "Indian Himalayan natural Arabidopsis thaliana accessions with abolished miR158 levels exhibit robust miR173-initiated trans-acting cascade silencing", is accepted for publication in The Plant Journal (in print), congrats Vivek for his efforts in this work. 

16. Congratulations Vivek for winning the 1st prize in poster competition on International Conference on Current Trends and Future Prospects of Plant Biology (CTFPPB, 2023) conducted by Department of Plant Sciences University of Hyderabad. 

17. Our new collaborative work tiltled "A conserved SNP variation in the pre-miR396c flanking region in Oryza sativa indica landraces correlates with mature miRNA abundance." is now available at Scientific Reports, congrats Vivek for his contribution to the work.

18. The news coverage about Melvin's paper on DJ-1D titled "A universal stress tolerance gene in the offing" is available at The Statesman. 

19. Kudos! Varsha's paper on molecular switches that regulate grape colour is now cited in 100 publications. See the full version of the paper in Journal of Experimental Botany.

20. Congrats Melvin on being selected as the Co-Runner up of prestigious Prof. Obaid Siddiqi Award 2022 given for the best paper published in the campus that used campus facilities.

21. Congrats Shiva for getting inducted as a fellow of prestigious National Academy of Sciences, India (NASI), Allahabad.

22. Congrats to Vivek on getting the prestigious 'Newton Bhabha fellowship' and completing work under Jeyaprakash Arulanandam at the University of Edinburgh.

23. Varsha defended her PhD thesis titled "MicroRNA-mediated regulation of secondary metabolites in plants", Congrats. 

24. Melvin's and Priyanka's paper titled "Methylglyoxalase DJ-1D from Arabidopsis is a robust macromolecule deglycase" is published now in New Phytol. Congrats.

25. Congrats Steffi for felicitation during 75th independence day celebrations at NCBS for her sincere service in COVID-19 testing facility last year. 

26. News coverage of Kannan's recent work on miR444-OsMADS27 module is covered in The Hindu.

27. Varsha's work on the degradome analysis of two domesticated grape varieties provides interesting insights into various miRNA related regulations on secondary metabolite pathways. The work titled "Cultivar-specific miRNA-mediated RNA silencing in grapes." is available now on Planta 256, 17.  

28. Anushree defended her PhD thesis titled "Understanding the molecular mechanisms of small RNA biogenesis and their roles in plants" Congrats.

29. Congrats Swetha for defending her PhD thesis titled "Significance of small RNA mediated gene regulation during rice domestication".

30. The news coverage about Vikram's work on gamma-clade RDRs is available at The Statesman. 

31. Kannan's work titled "Nitrate-dependent regulation of miR444-OsMADS27 signaling cascade controls root development in rice" is now available on Journal of Experimental Botany. The findings can help in improving nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) in crops. Congratulations to the authors!

32. Swetha Chenna's new work on degradome comparison of wild and cultivated rice can be a helpful tool in accurately validating sRNA targets. The work is now available on BMC Genomics.

33. Kudos!!! Sujith won the best poster award in NCBS Annual Talks - 2022 (Jan 10-13 2022) and continued this tradition.

34. Congrats to Ashwin Nair on being selected as Co-Runner up for Prof. Obaid Siddiqi Award 2020.

35. Ashwin defended his PhD thesis titled "Never ending arms race: Understanding the molecular mechanisms of plant virus interactions". Congrats!!

36. Ashwin's latest work uncovering the roles of βC1 in organellar genome integrity is available as preprint in bioRxiv. Comments are welcome!

37. Vivek's work describing the multi-modal epigenetic influence of plant specific RNA polymerase IV is available as a preprint in bioRxiv. Comments are welcome!

38. Vikram's work on elucidating the roles of novel gamma-clade RNA dependent RNA Polymerases (RDRs) in plants is published in New Phytologist.

39. Vinoth and Shiva have compiled various levels of tritrophic interactions at the molecular scale that come into picture when geminivirus invades a host plant using an insect host. This review is published in Proceedings of Royal Society B.

40. Kannan's work on delineating the functions of rice specific ARGONAUTE17 is out in Plant Molecular Biology.

41. Ashwin's work on how a viral protein undergoes antagonistic SUMOylation and SIM interactions as a stability switch is now published in BMC Biology.

42. Vivek and Ashwin have been relentlessly participating over the past months in supporting the COVID19 testing facility at the campus. Great work!! Keep it up.

43. Have you ever wondered how the beautiful small RNA northern blots are made in our lab?? The video tutorial is available as a JOVE publication here. Great initiative by Varsha, Melvin and Shiva.

44. Ashwin's work elucidating how a viral pathogenecity determinant protein undergoes antagonistic SUMOylation and SIM interactions as a stability switch is available as a pre-print in bioRxiv. Comments are welcome!!

45. Soumita's work investigating the roles of rice AGO18 in male fertility and phased small RNA biogenesis is out in Plant Reproduction - March 2020.

46. Anushree's work on identifying cryptic signatures associated with robust miRNA biogenesis is published in Nucleic Acids Research - Feb 2020. A short summary of the work is here.

47. Kannan's and Vivek's posters have obtained best poster recognition at NCBS Annual Talks - 2020 (Jan14-17 2020). Congrats!!

48. Sir C.V. Raman Young Scientist award (2019) in the field of "Agricultural Science and Animal Husbandry" has been awarded to P.V. Shivaprasad. The news coverage of the award appeared in The Hindu and Times of India.

49. Varsha's paper on molecular switches that regulate grape colour is published in the Journal of Experimental Botany - May 2019.. Kudos!!! The news coverage of the work appeared in The Hindu.

50. Ashwin's poster has won the best poster award at NCBS Annual Talks - 2019 (Jan21-23 2019). This is a new addition to collection of poster awards from the lab.

51. A BREAKTHROUGH REPORT from the lab in THE PLANT CELL - October 2018.

52. Varsha's poster has won the best poster title in 'Genetics and Development' section in NCBS Annual Talks - 2018 (Jan 3-5 2018). Special congratulations to her on securing poster awards in three consecutive years at our annual talks!!

53. Varsha's work has been selected for oral presentation at International conference on plant developmental biology and 3rd National Arbidopsis meeting held at NISER, Bhubaneswar.

54. Article published in National daily "The Hindu": One gene to tackle all stresses. A coverage of Melvin Prasad's work.

55. The lab congratulates Melvin Prasad on securing DBT-Research Associateship Award.

56. One gene to rule them all!! : NCBS news page describing Melvin's work.

57. The lab congratulates Kannan on securing DBT-Research Associateship Award.

58. Ashwin's poster is selected as the best in the conference "Structure across Scales" held at NCBS, Bangalore.

59. Swetha's poster is selected as the best in the NextGen Genomics, Biology, Bioinformatics and Technologies (NGBT) Conference " held at Bhubaneswar, India.

60. Melvin Prasad's work is published in Plant Molecular Biology. Congrats!!

61. Varsha's poster selected as the best in EMBO conducted conference "Micro and metabolic regulators in Plants" held at Thiruvananthapuram, India.