SESSION 1C – Inaugural Lectures by Fellows/Associates

Arnab Rai Chaudhuri

Studying plant environment interactions through the lens of epigenomics

Drought and salinity are the major factors that limit crop production worldwide. In response to various stresses, plants evoke some common and stress-specific signature pathways that enable plants to discriminate between different stimuli and respond in unique ways. The speaker studies epigenomic differences between different crop genotypes and their regulation under different abiotic stresses, via generation of DNA methylome and transcriptome maps and identification of differential methylation patterns in rice and chickpea cultivars with contrasting phenotypes under control and stressed conditions. These analyses provide clues to the epigenomic regulation of abiotic stress response and adaptation in crop plants. She has also identified genotype-specific and stress-regulated small RNAs and miRNAs in these genotypes of rice and chickpea to dissect the gene regulatory network involved in drought and/or salinity stress response. These studies enable identification of several candidate genes and metabolic pathways involved in abiotic stress responses/adaptation regulated by epigenetic mechanisms that can be used as epialleles for crop improvement.