Research Interest
- Molecular and structural biology of plant
viruses.
Publications
- Saravanakumar,M., Panicker.S. & Usha.R. (1998). Partial characterization and
early detection of a virus associated with necrosis disease of small
cardamom in South India. Indian Journal of Virology 14 (1), 59-63.
- Vijayalakshmi,C. & Usha.R. (1999). Sequence analysis of movement proteins
of plant viruses. Indian Journal of Virology 15(1), 15-25.
- Lin,T., Chen,Z., Usha.R., Stauffacher,C., Dai,J.B., Schmidt,T. & Johnson,J.E.
(1999). The refined crystal structure of cowpea mosaic virus at 2.8 A resolution.
Virology 265, 20-34.
- Sujatha,S. & Usha.R. (2000). Presence of a possible retinoblastoma protein
binding motif in the AC2 protein of subgroups II and III geminiviruses. Current
Science. 79 (9), 1159-1161.
- Jose, J. & Usha.R. (2000). Extraction of geminiviral DNA from a highly mucilaginous
plant (Abelmoschus esculentus). Plant Molecular Biology Reporter 18(4), 349-355.
- Jacob,T. & Usha.R. (2001). 3' terminal sequence analysis of the RNA genome of
the Indian isolate of cardamom mosaic virus: A new member of genus
Macluravirus of Potyviridae. Virus Genes 23 (1), 81-88.
- Sujatha,S., Arockiasamy,A., Krishnaswamy,S. & Usha.R. (2001). Molecular
Modeling of Epitope Presentation Using The Membrane Protein OmpC.
Indian Journal of Biochemistry & Biophysics 38, 294-297.
- Jacob, T. and Usha. R (2002). Expression of Cardamom mosaic virus coat
protein in Escherichia coli and its assembly into filamentous aggregates. Virus Research 86(1-2),133-141.
- Jose,J. and Usha.R (2003). Bhendi Yellow Vein Mosaic Disease in India Is Caused
by Association of a DNA Beta Satellite with a Begomovirus. Virology 305, 310-317.
- Jacob, T., Jebasingh, T., Venugopal, M.N. and Usha.R. (2003). High genetic
diversity in the coat protein and the 3’untranslated regions among the
geographical Isolates of Cardamom mosaic virus from south India. Journal of
Biosciences 28(5), 589-595.
- Usha. R. and Veluthambi, K. (2003). Genetic engineering for virus resistance. In
Improvement Strategies for Leguminosae Biotechnology 255-268. P.K.Jaiwal and R.P.Singh (Eds.) Kluwer Academic Publishers, Great Britain.
- Roy, A., Savithri, H.S. and Usha.R. (2003). Spices in Virus and virus-like
diseases of major crops in developing countries .Lobenstein,G. & Thottappilly, G.
(Eds.) Kluwer Academic Publishers.
- Girish, K. R. and Usha. R. (2005). Molecular characterization of two soybean-
infecting begomoviruses from India and evidence for recombination among
legume-infecting begomoviruses from South-East Asia. Virus Research.108,
167-176.
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Research activities:
1) Cardamom
mosaic virus: Molecular characterization has revealed that the virus is
a new member of the Macluravirus genus of family Potyviridae.
Sequencing of the coat protein gene of eight isolates of the virus from all
over the cardamom tract of South India has shown the extensive genetic
diversity of this virus.
2) Bhendi
yellow vein mosaic virus: The complete DNA A and the coat protein gene of
three variants have been sequenced. A novel satellite DNA b
associated with this virus has also been characterized for the first time in
India. This satellite DNA has been shown to be essential for disease
development.
3) Soybean
isolate of Mungbean yellow mosaic India virus and Mungbean yellow mosaic
virus from Madhya Pradesh and Madurai respectively, have been completely
characterized.
4) Horsegram
yellow mosaic virus from Tamil Nadu has been completely characterized.
5) The coat
protein and the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase of Cardamom mosaic virus,
the coat protein, replicase and bC1 proteins of Bhendi yellow vein mosaic virus and
the movement and replicase proteins of the soybean isolate of Mungbean
yellow mosaic India virus have been expressed in E.coli and purified
for structural studies.
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Projects
Current Projects
1) “Development of transgenic cardamom for virus resistance” funded by DBT
(Part of the CPMB project).
2) “Development of transgenic soybean with a broad-spectrum resistance to
the various strains of Soybean yellow mosaic virus” funded by DBT.
Completed
projects:
1)
“Molecular Characterization of
Bhendi Yellow Vein Mosaic Virus, A Whitefly – Transmitted Geminivirus” funded
by CSIR.
2) “Functional Characterization of A Satellite DNA (DNA b) Associated with Bhendi Yellow Vein Mosaic Disease (BYVMD)” funded by
CSIR.
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People
PhD students (completed) and their placement records:
1)
Dr.
Thomas Jacob
Research
associate
Center for
Biomarker Discovery (HRC-5)
Oregon
Health & Science University
Portland,
Oregon 97239 U.S.A.
jacobt@ohsu.edu
2)
Dr.
Joyce Jose
Post
Doctoral Research Associate,
Department
of Biological Sciences,915 W. State St.,
Purdue
University,
West
Lafayette,
Indiana 47906 U.S.A.
jjose@purdue.edu
3) Mr. K. R.
Girish
Submitted
thesis and completed viva.
Current
PhD students
1) Mr. T.
Jebasingh
2) Mr. P.
Pravin Kumar
3) Mr. A. D.
Barnabas (FIP)
4) Mr. P.
Gopal
Project
fellows:
1) Ms. C.
Manohari
2) Mr. A.
Kasin Yadunandam
Technicians:
Ms. R. M.
Packialakshmi
Ms.
Shanthini Devi
Lab
assistant:
Mr. E.
Sundaram
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