Kamal Kumar

Assistant Professor 

Education and Research Experience:
  • M.Sc. in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Tezpur University, Assam (2001-2003)
  • Ph.D. at National Institute of Plant Genome Research (NIPGR), New Delhi (2003-2010)
  • Post-Doctoral Research at National Institute of Plant Genome Research (2010-2019)
E-mailkkumar@pmb.du.ac.in
ResearchMapping and characterization of beneficial alleles in legume crops
Research interests:
Exploring the naturally evolved allelic variations for the development of climate-resilient and pathogen-resistant/tolerant high-yielding crop varieties is the primary aim of our research. We are interested in identifying the high-yielding accessions, mapping the underlying causative genomic variations, investigating their biological significance, and in parallel, pyramid these beneficial alleles into farmers’ adopted crop varieties.
              We are using three legume crops – chickpea (Cicer arietinum), cluster bean (Cyamopsis tetragonoloba), and mung bean (Vigna radiata) to improve fusarium wilt disease resistance, guar gum content, and heat tolerance, respectively.
 
Selected publications:
 Research Articles/ Reviews:
  1. Singh R, Kumar K, Purayannur S, Verma PK (2023). Genomics-assisted genetics of complex regions from chickpea chromosome 4 reveals two candidate genes for Ascochyta blight resistance. Plant Science (IF 2021: 5.363)
  2. Kaladhar VC, Singh S, Nair AM, Kumar K, Singh AK, Verma PK (2023). A small cysteine-rich fungal effector, BsCE66 is essential for the virulence of Bipolaris sorokiniana on wheat plants. Fungal Genetics and Biology 166, 103798. (IF 2021: 3.883)
  3. Singh SK, Shree A, Verma S, Singh K, Kumar K, Srivastava V, Singh R, Saxena S, Singh AP, Pandey A, Verma PK (2023). The nuclear effector ArPEC25 from the necrotrophic fungus Ascochyta rabiei targets the chickpea transcription factor CaβLIM1a and negatively modulates lignin biosynthesis, increasing host susceptibility. Plant Cell 35(3), 1134–1159. (IF 2021: 12.085)
  4. Singh R, Dwivedi A, Singh Y, Kumar K, Ranjan A, Verma PK (2022). Global transcriptome and co-expression analysis reveal robust host defence pathway reprogramming and identify key regulators of early phases of Cicer-Ascochyta interactions. Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions 35(11), 1034–1047. (IF 2021: 4.171)
  5. Singh R*, Kumar K*, Purayannur S, Chen W, Verma PK (2022). Ascochyta rabiei: A threat to global chickpea production. Molecular Plant Pathology 23(9), 1241–1261. (IF 2021: 5.520) (*Joint first authors)
  6. Singh R*, Kumar K*, Bharadwaj C, Verma PK (2022). Broadening the horizon of crop research: a decade of advancements in plant molecular genetics to divulge phenotype governing genes. Planta 255(2), 46. (IF 2021: 4.540) (*Joint first authors)
  7. Sinha M, Shree A, Singh K, Kumar K, Singh SK, Kumar V, Verma PK (2021). Modulation of fungal virulence through CRZ1 regulated F-BAR dependent actin remodeling and endocytosis in chickpea infecting phytopathogen Ascochyta rabiei. PLoS Genetics 17(5), e1009137. (IF 2021: 6.02)
  8. Maurya R, Singh Y, Sinha M, Singh K, Mishra P, Singh SK, Verma S, Prabha K, Kumar K*, Verma PK* (2020). Transcript profiling reveals potential regulators for oxidative stress response of a necrotrophic chickpea pathogen Ascochyta rabiei. 3Biotech 10,117. (IF 2021: 2.893) (*Joint corresponding authors)
  9. Kumar K*,Purayannur S*, Kaladhar VC, Parida SK, Verma PK (2018). mQTL-seq and classical mapping implicates the role of an AT-HOOK MOTIF CONTAINING NUCLEAR LOCALIZED (AHL) family gene in Ascochyta blight resistance of chickpea. Plant, Cell & Environment 42, 2128–2140 (IF 2021: 7.947) (*Joint first authors)
  10. Purayannur S*, Kumar K*, Kaladhar VC*, Verma PK (2017). Phylogenomic analysis of MKKs and MAPKs from 16 legumes and detection of interacting pairs in chickpea divulge MAPK signalling modules. Scientific Reports 7, 5026 (IF 2021: 4.996). (*Joint first authors)
  11. Kumar K, Srivastava V, Purayannur S, Kaladhar VC, Cheruvu PJ, Verma PK (2016). WRKY domain-encoding genes of a crop legume chickpea (Cicer arietinum): Comparative analysis with Medicago truncatula WRKY family and characterization of group-III gene(s). DNA Research 23(3), 225–239. (IF 2021: 4.477)
  12. Kumar K, Yadav S, Purayannur S, Verma PK (2013). An alternative approach in Gateway cloning when the bacterial antibiotic selection cassettes of the entry clone and destination vector are the same. Molecular Biotechnology 54, 133–140. (IF 2021: 2.860)
  13. Yadav S, Kushwaha HR, Kumar K, Verma PK (2012). Comparative structural modelling of a monothiol GRX from chickpea: insight in iron-sulphur cluster assembly. International Journal of Biological Macromolecules 51, 266–273. (IF 2021: 8.025)
  14. Jaiswal P, Cheruku JR*, Kumar K*, Yadav S*, Singh A*, Kumari P, Dube SC, Upadhyaya KC, Verma PK (2012). Differential transcript accumulation in chickpea during early phases of compatible interaction with a necrotrophic fungus Ascochyta rabiei. Molecular Biology Reports 39, 4635–4646 (*joint second authors). (IF 2021: 2.742)

Book Chapters:

  1. Kumar K and Verma PK (2012). Genomics of filamentous phytopathogens: new insight in pathogenesis and virulence, In: Molecular Approaches for Plant Fungal Disease Management., P. ed., Westville Publishing House, New Delhi. (ISBN-13:978-8185873848)
  2. Kumar K and Verma PK (2012). Plant Pathogen Interactions: Crop Improvements under Adverse Conditions, In book Plant Acclimation to Environmental Stress. Narendra Tuteja and Sarvajeet Singh Gill, eds. Springer Science+Business Media New York, USA. (ISBN: 978-1-4614-5001-6)
  3. Purayannur P, Kumar K and Verma PK (2017). Genetic engineering to improve biotic stress tolerance in plants, In book Plant Biotechnology: Principles and applications. Editors: MZ Abdin, U Khantwal, M Kamaluddin, and Athar Ali. Publisher- Springer science + Business Media Singapore Pvt Ltd. (ISBN 978-981-10-2959-2)
  4. Dwivedi A, Kumar K and Verma PK (2019). Constructing Synthetic Pathways in Plants: Strategies and Tools. In book Current Developments in Biotechnology and Bioengineering: Synthetic Biology, Cell Engineering and Bioprocessing Technologies”. Edited by Sudhir P. Singh, Ashok Pandey, Guocheng Du, and Sudesh Kumar. Elsevier B.V., (ISBN: 978-0-444-64085-7)
  5. Singh J, Kumar K and Verma PK (2020). Functional characterization of genes involved in legume nodulation using hairy root cultures. In book Hairy Root Cultures Based Applications- Methods and Protocols. Edited by Vikas Srivastava, Shakti Mehrotra and Sonal Mishra. Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. (ISBN: 978-981-15-4055-4)