Proteomics and molecular biology of abiotic stress response and tolerance

Abiotic stresses lead to wide-ranging consequences, including environmental problem associated with heavy metals and agricultural losses resulted in by drought and salinity. Now a days the use of plants for the remediation of heavy metal contaminated soil is increasingly been advocated. But the success of “phytoremediation” depends largely on the availability of plant species, somewhat drought tolerant, and capable of growing fast even in the presence of high concentration of heavy metals. Although heavy metal resistant plants are available, there are limitations in their use because the characters may not be present in the desired species, having fast growth rate, high root density, etc. for effective phytoremediation. Similarly there are needs for cultivars tolerant to drought and salinity to bring the salt and drought affected lands, which amount to more than 40 % of agricultural lands the world over, into proper cultivation. Achieving this by plant breeding is discouraging because of quantitative nature of the salt and drought tolerant traits. Hence, it is highly necessary to understand the biochemical and molecular bases of tolerance of plants to metals, drought and salts, which may allow the scientists to take a biotechnological approach in improving tolerance of the plants of interest to these abiotic stresses.

(New) EST Database

Selected Publications

S. Mallik, M. NAayak, B.B. Sahu, A. K. Panigrahi, B.P. Shaw* (2010) Response of antioxidant enzymes to high Na+ concentration in taxonomically and morphologically diverse salt-tolerant plants. Biologia Plantarum

Rout, N. P. and Shaw, B. P. (2001). Salt tolerance in aquatic macrophyte: possible involvement of the antioxidative enzymes. Plant Science, 160: 415-423.

Shaw BP, Sahu SK and Mishra RK (2004) Heavy metal induced oxidative damage in terrestrial plants. In: Heavy Metal Stress in Plants - From Biomolecules to Ecosystems, 2nd ed, MNV Prasad (Ed.), Pp 84-126, Springer-Verlag, New York

Shaw BP, Prasad MNV, Jha VK and Sahu BB (2006) Detoxification/Defense mechanisms in metal-exposed plants. In: Trace Elements in the Environment: Biogeochemistry, Biotechnology and Bioremediation, MNV Prasad, K. S. Sajwan and R. Naidu (Eds.), Pp 291-324, CRC Press, Boca Raton, New York, London

Shaw BP, Jha VK and Sahu BB (2007) Metal resistance in plants with particular reference to Aluminium. In: Environmental Bioremediation Technologies, S. N. Singh and R. D. Tripathi (Eds.), Pp 147-172.

Tripathi SB, Gurumurthi K, Panigrahi AK and Shaw BP, Salinity induced changes in proline and betaine contents and synthesis in two aquatic macrophytes differing in salt tolerance, Biol. Plant, 51: 110-115, 2007.

Rajani Kanta Mishra; B.P Shaw, B.K Sahu, S Mishra, Y Senga, Seasonal appearance of chlorophyceae phytoplankton bloom by river discharge off Paradeep at Orissa Coast in the Bay of Bengal", has been accepted for publication in Environmental Monitoring and Assessment.

Binod B. Sahu, Birendra P. Shaw (2009) Salt inducible isoform of plasma membrane H⁺ATPase gene in rice remains constitutively expressed in natural halophyte, Suaeda maritima.Journal of Plant Physiology 166, 1077-1089; doi:10.1016/jplph.2008.12.001

Binod B Sahu and Birendra P Shaw (2009)  Isolation, identification and expression analysis of salt-induced genes in Suaeda maritima, a natural halophyte using PCR-based suppression subtractive hybridization.  BMC Plant Biology,   9:69, 2009; doi:10.1186/1471-2229-9-69

Sunil Kumar, Binod Bihari Sahu, Niraj Kanti Tripathy and Birendra Prasad Shaw, In Silico Identification of Putative Proton Binding Sites of a Plasma Membrane H +-ATPase Isoform of Arabidopsis Thaliana, AHA1, J Proteomics Bioinform, 2009, 2: 349-359. doi:10.4172/jpb.1000095