Plant Molecular Biology & Biotechnology
Our group is involved in identification, elucidation, and characterization of genes involved in secondary metabolite biosynthesis to understand the molecular pathway and its regulation. We have explored multiple biosynthesis pathways (CG biosynthesis from Calotropis and Nerium, Alkaloid biosynthesis from Alstonia & Eclipta and wedelolactone biosynthetic from Eclipta) for identification of biosynthetic enzyme. Our research paves the way for metabolic engineering for production of targeted metabolites in cell/ organ culture and identification of efficient biocatalyst for targeted biosynthesis of natural products for human health benefits
Passport data generation for the identification and authentication of medicinal plants (Molecular Taxonomy & pharmacognosy)
Plants are a rich source of biologically active compounds for drug discovery, our group is involved in survey, identification, collection and authentication of plant and raw material for drug development program from natural product. We generate bar codes of medicinally important plants using 05 different loci namely rbcL, matK, ITS, trnH-psbA, and ITS2 which are amplified, sequenced and analyzed for the establishment of bar code. We use DNA fingerprinting technique (e.g. RAPD, ISSR, SSR, AFLP etc) for the authentication biological materials. In addition, we authenticate plant/raw material by various pharmacognosy tools.