Girdhar K. Pandey

Professor

Email: gkpandey@south.du.ac.in
Research areaCalcium-mediated Signaling, Functional Genomics of Stress Signaling, and Stress Adaptation in Plants

Research Interests: 

 

Evolutionarily plants have adopted a sessile habit to sustain in an environment. This immobile nature has made plants to evolve an intricate sensing and signaling network in response to both favorable and unfavorable conditions. The adaptive and defense machinery of plants consists of a plethora of networks or pathways, which enable in activating and responding against these stresses. Calcium act as a ubiquitous player in many of the signaling pathways in all eukaryotes, be it physiological or developmental processes. One of the most important phenomenon calcium regulates is the signal transduction network for sensing and responding to environmental stimuli. In the calcium mediated signaling network, a change in calcium concentration is designated as “calcium signature” upon sensing a stimuli, which is being sensed by a plethora of calcium sensors such as Calmodulin, CDPK, and CBL-CIPK networks in plants.

My group is studying the role of several downstream components in calcium signaling, which might be working with calcium sensors/relay, and ultimately acting on effectors molecules in modulating a response either by change in gene expression or direct physiological regulation. At present, we are extensively investigating some of the key players such as calcium sensors, kinases, phosphatases, transcription factors and transporters/ channels to understand the stress signaling mechanism in plants.

In near future, we wanted to investigate the detail mechanistic interplay and cross talk of different signaling cascades with calcium signaling network in Arabidopsis and rice model systems under different stress conditions. The interaction of several pathways to converge and diverge at some points will be investigated by using the advanced tools of genetic and functional genomics where several networks can be mapped collectively. With the extensive knowledge of complex interplay of stress signaling networks, molecular and genetic manipulation of key/master regulators will be targeted, which will be useful for agricultural biotechnology sector. And hence, desired traits can be imparted in the crop plants to adapt to a higher degree of stresses, without losing crop yield and productivity.

 

Selected Publications:
 
  1. Kanwar P, Sanyal SK, Mahiwal S, Ravi B, Kaur K, Fernandes JL, Yadav AK, Tokas I, Srivastava AK, Suprasanna P, Pandey GK. (2021) CIPK9 targets VDAC3 and modulates oxidative stress responses in Arabidopsis. Plant Journal. 109(1):241-260 doi: 10.1111/tpj.15572. PMID: 34748255. 
  2. Yadav AK, Jha SK, Sanyal SK, Luan S, Pandey GK (2018) Arabidopsis Calcineurin B-like proteins differentially regulate phosphorylation activity of CBL-interacting protein kinase 9. Biochemical Journal475 (16): 2621-2636.
  3. Singh A, Yadav AK, Kaur K, Sanyal SK, Jha SK, Fernandes JL, Sharma P, Tokas I, Pandey A, Luan S, Pandey GK (2018) Protein Phosphatase 2C, AP2C1 interacts with and negatively regulates the function of CIPK9 under potassium deficient conditions in Arabidopsis. Journal of Experimental Botany 69 (16): 4003-4015.
  4. Shankar A, Fernandes JL, Kaur K, Sharma M, Kundu S, Pandey GK   (2017) Rice Phytoglobin regulate responses under low mineral nutrients and abiotic stresses in Arabidopsis thalianaPlant Cell Environment  41(1):215-230.
  5. Sanyal SK, Kanwar PK, Samtani S, Kaur K, Jha SK and Pandey GK    (2017) Alternative splicing of CIPK3 results in distinct target selection to propagate ABA signaling in Arabidopsis. Frontier Plant Science 8:1924. 
  6. Sanyal SK, Kanwar P, Yadav AK, Sharma C, Kumar A, Pandey GK  (2017) Arabidopsis CBL interacting protein kinase 3 interacts with ABR1, an APETALA2 domain transcription factor, to regulate ABA responses.  Plant Science 254: 48-59.
  7. Pandey GK, Kanwar P, Singh A, Steinhorst L, Pandey A, Yadav AK, Tokas I, Sanyal S, Kim BG, Lee SC, Cheong YH, Kudla J, Luan S (2015) CBL-interacting protein kinase, CIPK21, regulates osmotic and salt stress responses in Arabidopsis. Plant Physiology 169(1):780-92.
  8. Singh A, Kanwar P, Yadav AK, Mishra M, Jha SK, Baranwal V, Pandey A, Kapoor S, Tyagi AK, Pandey GK (2014) Genome-wide expressional and functional analysis of calcium transport elements during abiotic stress and development in rice. FEBS Journal 281(3):894-915.    
  9. Sharma M, Singh A, Shankar A, Pandey A, Baranwal V, Kapoor S, Tyagi AK, Pandey GK (2014) Comprehensive Expression Analysis of Rice Armadillo Gene Family During Abiotic Stress and Development. DNA Research 21:267-83. 
  10. Singh A, Giri J, Kapoor S, Tyagi AK, Pandey GK (2010) Protein phosphatase complement in rice: genome-wide identification and transcriptional analysis under abiotic stress conditions and reproductive development. BMC Genomics 11:435. 
  11. Pandey, GK, Grant, JG, Cheong YH, Kim BG, Li L, and Luan S (2007) Calcineurin-B-Like Protein CBL9 Interacts with Target Kinase CIPK3 in the Regulation of ABA Response in Seed Germination. Molecular Plant 1: 238-248.
  12. Pandey, GK, Cheong YH, Kim BG, Grant JG, Li L and Luan S (2007) CIPK9: a calcium sensor-interacting protein kinase required for low-potassium tolerance in Arabidopsis. Cell Research 17: 411-421.
  13. Pandey, GK, Grant JG, Cheong YH, Kim BG, Li L and Luan L (2005) ABR1, an AP2-Domain Transcription Factor that Functions as a Repressor of ABA Response in Arabidopsis. Plant Physiology139: 1185-1193.
  14. Pandey, GK, Kim KN, Cheong YH, Grant JG, Li L, Hung W, D’Angelo C, Weinl S, Kudla J and Luan S (2004) The calcium sensor CBL9 modulates ABA sensitivity and biosynthesis in Arabidopsis. Plant Cell16: 1912-1924.
  15. Cheong YH*, Kim KN*, Pandey GK*, Gupta R, Grant JG, and Luan S (2003) CBL1, a calcium sensor that differentially regulates salt, drought, ABA, and cold responses in Arabidopsis. Plant Cell 15: 1833-1845. (* Equal contribution)
Patents
  1. Methods for enhancing a plant stress response. Pandey GK, Kim KN, Gupta R, and Luan S (United States Patent 7,250,555, granted in 2007)
  2. Transgenic plants with enhanced chlorophyll content and salt tolerance. Pandey GK, Reddy VS, Deswal R, Bhattachaya A and Sopory SK (United States Patent 6,791,009, granted in 2004)