M. Nagaraju

Bio: M. Nagaraju is an academic researcher from National Institute of Nutrition, Hyderabad. The author has contributed to research in topics: Gene & Gene family. The author has an hindex of 2, co-authored 2 publications receiving 34 citations.

Plant small heat shock proteins - evolutionary and functional diversity.

Abstract: Small heat shock proteins (sHSPs) are an ubiquitous protein family found in archaea, bacteria and eukaryotes. In plants, as in other organisms, sHSPs are upregulated by stress and are proposed to act as molecular chaperones to protect other proteins from stress-induced damage. sHSPs share an 'α-crystallin domain' with a β-sandwich structure and a diverse N-terminal domain. Although sHSPs are 12-25 kDa polypeptides, most assemble into oligomers with ≥ 12 subunits. Plant sHSPs are particularly diverse and numerous; some species have as many as 40 sHSPs. In angiosperms this diversity comprises ≥ 11 sHSP classes encoding proteins targeted to the cytosol, nucleus, endoplasmic reticulum, chloroplasts, mitochondria and peroxisomes. The sHSPs underwent a lineage-specific gene expansion, diversifying early in land plant evolution, potentially in response to stress in the terrestrial environment, and expanded again in seed plants and again in angiosperms. Understanding the structure and evolution of plant sHSPs has progressed, and a model for their chaperone activity has been proposed. However, how the chaperone model applies to diverse sHSPs and what processes sHSPs protect are far from understood. As more plant genomes and transcriptomes become available, it will be possible to explore theories of the evolutionary pressures driving sHSP diversification.

Transcriptomics of Biostimulation of Plants Under Abiotic Stress

Abstract: Plant biostimulants are compounds, living microorganisms, or their constituent parts that alter plant development programs The impact of biostimulants is manifested in several ways: via morphological, physiological, biochemical, epigenomic, proteomic, and transcriptomic changes For each of these, a response and alteration occur, and these alterations in turn improve metabolic and adaptive performance in the environment Many studies have been conducted on the effects of different biotic and abiotic stimulants on plants, including many crop species However, as far as we know, there are no reviews available that describe the impact of biostimulants for a specific field such as transcriptomics, which is the objective of this review For the commercial registration process of products for agricultural use, it is necessary to distinguish the specific impact of biostimulants from that of other legal categories of products used in agriculture, such as fertilizers and plant hormones For the chemical or biological classification of biostimulants, the classification is seen as a complex issue, given the great diversity of compounds and organisms that cause biostimulation However, with an approach focused on the impact on a particular field such as transcriptomics, it is perhaps possible to obtain a criterion that allows biostimulants to be grouped considering their effects on living systems, as well as the overlap of the impact on metabolism, physiology, and morphology occurring between fertilizers, hormones, and biostimulants