School of Biotechnology

Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai

  Research Interest

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. 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. 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. K.R. Girish, S. Palanivelu,  P.D. Kumar and R. Usha (2006). Refolding, purification and characterization of replication-initiator protein from soybean-infecting geminivirus. Journal of Virological Methods 136 (1-2), 154-159.  P. Pravin Kumar, R. Usha, A. Zrachya , Y. Levy, H. Spanov , Y. Gafni (2006). Protein–protein interactions and nuclear trafficking of coat protein and bC1 protein associated with Bhendi yellow vein mosaic disease. Virus Research  122, 127-136 Gopal, P., Pravin Kumar, P., Sinilal, B, Jose, J ., Kasin Yadunandam, and Usha, R. (2007). Differential roles of C4 and βC1 in mediating suppression of posttranscriptional gene silencing: Evidence for transactivation by the C2 of Bhendi yellow vein mosaic virus, a monopartite begomovirus. Virus Research 123, 9-18 T. Vadivukarasi, K. R. Girish and R. Usha (2007). Sequence and recombination analyses of the geminivirus replication initiator protein. Journal of Biosciences 32(1), 17-29. Avi Zrachya, Pravin P. Kumar, Usha Ramakrishnan, Yael Levy,Abraham      Loyter, Tzahi Arazi, Moshe Lapidot and Yedidya Gafni (2007). Production of siRNA targeted against TYLCV coat protein transcripts leads to silencing  of its expression and resistance to the virus. Transgenic Research 16(3), 385-398. Girish K. Radhakrishnan, Gary A. Splitter and Ramakrishnan Usha (2008). DNA  recognition properties of the cell-to-cell movement protein (MP) of  soybean isolate of Mungbean yellow mosaic India virus  (MYMIV-Sb). Virus Research 131, 152- 159. T. Jebasingh, T. Jacob, M. Shah, D. Das, S. Krishnaswamy and R. Usha (2008).Optimized    expression, solubilization and purification of nuclear inclusion protein b of Cardamom    mosaic virus. Indian Journal of Biochemistry & Biophysics 45, 98-105 C Manohari , S Backiyarani , T Jebasingh, Archana Somanath  and R Usha (2008). Efficient plant regeneration in small cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum Maton.) through somatic embryogenesis. Indian Journal of Biotechnology 7,  407-409 Anburaj D. Barnabas, Girish K. Radhakrishnan & Usha Ramakrishnan (2010). Characterization of a begomovirus causing horsegram yellow mosaic disease in India European Journal of Plant Pathology 127(1), 41-51. R. M. Packialakshmi, N. Srivastava, K. R. Girish & R. Usha (2010).  Molecular characterization of a distinct begomovirus species from Vernonia cinerea and associated DNA-b using the bacteriophage Φ29 DNA polymerase Virus Genes 41(1), 135-143.

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Major ongoing research programs in the lab: Protein engineering of self-Assembly systems for applications in Nanoscience and nanotechnology: Work is in progress towards the expression of HIV epitopes on the surface of the coat protein of Cardamom mosaic virus and on the loops of S.typhi OmpC and OmpF. Immunological and structural studies and nanoparticle formation using these chimeric proteins are being carried out in collaboration with Dr. V. D. Ramanathan (Tuberculosis Research Centre, Chennai), Dr. S. Krishnaswamy, (MKU) and Dr. P. Gautam, (Anna University, Chennai). Elucidation of the interactions between the host proteins and the Bhendi yellow vein mosaic viral proteins. Development of virus-resistant transgenic soybean by genetically engineering soybean with truncated and full-length movement proteins from the soybean isolate of Mungbean yellow mosaic India virus from Madhya Pradesh. Development of Bhendi yellow vein mosaic virus constructs for bhendi transformation. Development of virus induced gene silencing geminiviral vectors using Mungbean yellow mosaic India virus  and Bhendi yellow vein mosaic virus.

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Projects   Sl. No. PROJECT TITLE Funding Agency Duration 1 “Development of transgenic cardamom for virus resistance” part of the CPMB project jointly with Dr. K. Veluthambi DBT, New Delhi 1997-2002 & 2002-2007 2 “Genetic engineering of chillies for virus resistance” jointly with Dr. K.  Veluthambi Rallis India,Ltd 1996-1999 3 “Molecular Characterization of Bhendi Yellow Vein Mosaic Virus A Whitefly – Transmitted Gemini Virus” CSIR, New Delhi 1999 – 2002 4 “Functional Characterization of A Satellite DNA (DNA b) Associated with Bhendi Yellow Vein Mosaic Disease” CSIR, New Delhi 2002 – 2005 5 “Development of transgenic soybean with a broad-spectrum resistance to the various strains of Soybean Yellow mosaic virus” DBT, New Delhi 2004-2009 6 “Genomic approach for systematic mapping of protein-protein  interactions involved in infection, movement and assembly of two   begomoviruses:  Tomato Yellow leaf curl virus and Bhendi Yellow Vein Mosaic Virus” (Collaboration with Prof.Y.Gafni, ARO, The Volcani Center, Israel) Indo-Israel, DST, New Delhi 2006-2008 7 Production of Transgenic Bhendi for Bhendi yellow vein mosaic virus Disease resistance. M/s Rasi Seeds(P)  Ltd 2007-2010 8 “Host-Pathogen interactions involving begomoviruses with particular reference to Bhendi yellow vein mosaic virus, a whitefly-transmitted begomovirus” DBT, New Delhi 2007-2011 9 “Protein Engineering of self-Assembly systems for applications in Nanoscience and nanotechnology” (a network project between MKU, TRC and AU). DBT, New Delhi 2007-2011 10 “Development and application of virus-induced gene silencing geminiviral vectors for agriculture” DBT, New Delhi 2007-2010 11 “Functional genomics of yellow mosaic viruses of soybean and development of transgenic resistance in soybean" jointly with Indian Agricultural Research Institute. DBT, New Delhi 2008-2011

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People  Research Group:  1)      D. Subha                                          SRF 2)      C. Sam Aldrin                                    JRF 3)      R. M. Packialakshmi                           JRF 4)      C. Jeyabharathy                               JRF 5)      S. Tamilselvi                                      JRF 6)      Dr. S. Manivannan                             RA 7)  R. Ananda Gunadevi                           JRF 8)   J. Sridharan                                       JRF 9)  Bapatla Pavan Kumar                         JRF PhD degree awarded:  1)      Dr. Thomas Jacob: Scientist at Proteogenix Inc. Beaverton Oregon, USA 2)      Dr. Joyce Jose: Post-doctoral fellow, Purdue University, USA. 3)      Dr. K. R. Girish, Post-doctoral fellow, University of Wisconsin, USA. 4)      Dr. P. Pravin Kumar, Post-doctoral fellow, Weizmann Institute, Israel. 5)      Dr. P. Gopal, Assistant Professor, MKU, Madurai 6)      Dr. T. Jebasingh, Post-doctoral fellow, Weizmann Institute, Israel. 7)      Dr. A. D. Barnabas, Associate Professor, American college, Madurai.

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