Research Summary

• Changing climate conditions are the biggest threat to agricultural and social sustainability on the planet. Plants, being sessile, have evolved elaborate regulatory mechanisms to optimize growth with minimal energy cost. Phytohormones play key regulatory roles in plant growth, development as well as adaptation to various biotic and abiotic stressors. Steroid hormones, Brassinosteroids (BRs) are constitutive plant growth regulators that also control plant adaptation to various stresses. However, most of these studies are centered around the canonical BRI1-mediated response pathway, and the importance of cell/tissue-specific BR signaling components that regulate specialized responses has gained momentum only recently. We are interested in identifying the BR-mediated mechanisms of plant adaptation growth under challenging conditions (temperature, light, water availability, and CO2) at a spatio-temporal level, and if BR pathway components can coordinate local and long-distance signal mobilization for optimal nutrient and resource partitioning. In that direction, we are adapting a cell/tissue-specific approach and developing efficient molecular tools for stress resilience in plants without yield and nutritional value impairment.


• Roots architecture is a highly versatile system performing essential functions for plants’ survival in its environment. These functions include acquisition of water and nutrients, interaction sites for the soil microbiome, providing structural support to the whole plant body, and acting as a storage organ for food and nutrients. Understanding the strategies that plants have evolved to allow root growth in degraded soil ecosystems is important for food and nutrition safety. Understanding the root development, growth, nutrient uptake and transport mechanisms in plants growing under challenging growth conditions and their coordination with the systemic adaptation is one of the major research focuses of our group. We are working towards identifying novel molecular regulators for improving plant root system growth, nutrient uptake, and resource allocation under adverse climate conditions.

• Coleto-Alcudia V, Lozano-Elena F, Vera G, Betegón I, Gupta A, Efroni I, Caño-Delgado AI (2024) TOTEM: A web TOol for Tissue-EnrichMent analysis on gene lists. bioRxiv. doi.org/10.1101/2024.04.04.588116


• Gupta A, Rico-Medina A, Lozano-Elena F, Marqués-Bueno M, Fontanet JB, Fàbregas N, Saleh Alseekh S, Fernie AR and Caño-Delgado AI (2023) Brassinosteroid receptor BRL3 triggers systemic plant adaptation to elevated temperature from the phloem cells. bioRxiv. doi.org/10.1101/2023.03.07.531487


• Gupta A, Rastogi A, Singh M (2022) Ethylene Implication in root development. In S Singh, T Husain, VP Singh, DK Tripathi, SM Prasad, NK Dubey, eds, Ethylene in Plant Biology. Wiley Publisher, Hoboken, NJ, USA pp 1-16. doi.org/10.1002/9781119744719.ch1


• Gupta A, Singh M, Singh D, Laxmi A (2022) Cross-talk between brassinosteroids and other phytohormones: biological functions and molecular mechanism. In GJ Ahammed, A Sharma, J Yu, eds, Brassinosteroids in Plant Developmental Biology and Stress Tolerance. Academic Press, pp. 131-159.


• Gupta A, Rico-Medina A, Caño-Delgado AI (2020) The physiology of plant responses to drought. SCIENCE 368 (6488), 266-269


• Planas-Riverola A, Gupta A, Betegón-Putze I, Bosch N, Ibañes M, Caño-Delgado AI (2019) Brassinosteroid signaling in plant development and adaptation to stress. DEVELOPMENT 146: dev151894


• Singh M, Gupta A, Singh D, Khurana JP, Laxmi A (2017). Arabidopsis RSS1 Mediates Cross-Talk Between Glucose and Light Signaling During Hypocotyl Elongation Growth. SCIENTIFIC REPORTS. 7(1):16101.


• Singh M, Gupta A, Laxmi A (2017) Striking the Right Chord: Signaling Enigma during Root Gravitropism. FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2017.01304.


• Singh M, Gupta A, Laxmi A (2016) Glucose and brassinosteroid signaling network in controlling plant growth and development under different environmental conditions. In GK Pandey (Ed.), Mechanism of Plant Hormone Signaling Under Stress Wiley Publisher, Hoboken, NJ, USA, pp 443-469.


• Singh M, Gupta A, Laxmi A (2015) Ethylene act as a negative regulator of Glucose induced lateral root emergence in Arabidopsis. PLANT SIGNALING AND BEHAVIOR. 10(9):e1058460


• Gupta A, Singh M, Laxmi A (2015) Multiple Interactions between Glucose and Brassinosteroid Signal Transduction Pathways in Arabidopsis Are Uncovered by Whole-Genome Transcriptional Profiling. PLANT PHYSIOLOGY. 168(3): 1091-1105


• Gupta A, Singh M, Laxmi A (2015) Interaction between Glucose and Brassinosteroid during the Regulation of Lateral Root Development in Arabidopsis PLANT PHYSIOLOGY. 168(1): 307-320


• Singh M, Gupta A, Laxmi A (2014) Glucose and phytohormone interplay in controlling root directional growth in Arabidopsis PLANT SIGNALING AND BEHAVIOR. 9(7): e29219


• Singh M, Gupta A, Laxmi A (2014) Glucose control of root growth direction in Arabidopsis thaliana JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BOTANY. 65(12): 2981-2993


• Laxmi A, Gupta A, Mishra BS, Singh M, Jamsheer KM, Kushwah S (2013) Signal integration, auxin homeostasis, and plant development. In R Chen and F Baluska, eds, Polar Auxin Transport, Signaling and Communication in Plants, 17, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, pp 45-79


• Gupta A, Singh M, Jones AM, Laxmi A (2012) Hypocotyl directional growth in Arabidopsis: a complex trait PLANT PHYSIOLOGY. 159(4): 1463-1476


• Gupta A, Singh M, Mishra BS, Kushwah S, Laxmi A (2009) Role of glucose in spatial distribution of auxin regulated genes PLANT SIGNALING AND BEHAVIOR. 4(9): 60-61

• Caño-Delgado AI, Gupta A, Lozano Elena F, (2021) A method for modulating plant adaptation traits. EP. 21382498.0. (Dated 03-06-21). WO PCT/EP2022/065072 (Dated 02-06-22) US 18/565,555 (Dated 30-11-23) ZA (Dated 07-02-24)

• Research Scholars:
• Shalini Pandey (UGC-JRF)
• Vikas (CSIR-JRF)
• Priti Roy (CSIR-JRF)


• Project Staff:
• Yashi Singh (PA-I)

Molecular Biology and Biotechnology Division
CSIR-National Botanical Research Institute,
436, Rana Pratap Marg, Lucknow-226001, INDIA

Phone no.: 0522-2297993

Email: aditi.gupta25@nbri.res.in