Research Department:
Dr. G. Ganesan joined as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Genetic Engineering in July 2016. He received his master and Ph.D degrees in Biotechnology from the University of Madras. Prior to joining SRM, he worked as a Scientist at M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF), Chennai and Visiting Research Fellow at International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Phillipines. He has more than ten years research experience in Plant Molecular Biology. His research focuses on understanding the molecular mechanisms of salinity and drought tolerance in plants.
Academic Experiences
- Scientist, M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai, India, January 2015- June 2016
- Visiting Research Fellow, International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Philippines, April 2014- Sep 2014
- Research Associate, M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai, India, July 2013- March 2014
- Senior Research Fellow (CSIR-Direct), M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai, India, April 2011- June 2013
Achievements and Awards:
- Norman Borlaug Fellowship -2016, Louisiana State University, USA
- SERB Indo-US, Postdoctoral Research Fellow-2016, Indo-US Science and Technology Forum (IUSSTF)
- Start up research grant (Young Scientist Fellowship) from Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), Government of India.
- Short-term visiting research fellowship-2014 from International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Philippines
- Senior Research Fellowship (Direct)-2011 from the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), India
Salinity and drought are major abiotic stress factors that adversely affect plant growth and productivity, especially crops like rice and wheat. A clear understanding of the molecular basis of plant tolerance to above mentioned stresses will help us to engineer crops that can grow and yield under such extreme conditions. To achieve this goal, we focus on the following specific research topics
- Functional characterization of genes responsible for salinity and drought tolerance
- CRISPR-Cas9 based targeted genome engineering in crops
- Understanding the role of microRNAs in plant abiotic stress tolerance
Research fellow:
- M. Ashok Kumar
- Nisha S Keeran; Ganesan G; Ajay K Parida. A novel Heavy Metal ATPase peptide from Prosopis juliflora is involved in metal uptake in yeast and tobacco.(2016) Transgenic Research. Accepted for publication
- Ganesan Govindan and Sivaprakash Ramalingam. Programmable Site Specific Nucleases for Targeted Genome engineering in Higher Eukaryotes. Journal of Cellular Physiology (2016) 231, 2380-2392.
- Dixit S, Biswal A, Min A, Henry A , Oane R, Raorane M, Longkumer T, Pabuayon I, Mutte S, Vardarajan A, Miro B, Govindan G, Enriquez B, Pueffeld M, Sreenivasulu N, Slamet-Loedin I, Sundarvelpandian K, Tsai Y-C, Raghuvanshi S, Hsing Y-i, Kumar A, Kohli A. Action of multiple intra-QTL genes concerted around a co-localized transcription factor underpins a large effect QTL. Nature Scientific Reports (2015) 5, 15183-15191 .
- Ganesan G, Sankararamasubramanian HM, Harikrishnan M, Ashwin G, Parida A. A MYB transcription factor from the grey mangrove is induced by stress and confers NaCl tolerance in tobacco. Journal of Experimental Botany (2012) 63, 4549-61.
- Appunu Chinnaswamy, Ganesan Govindan, Michał Kalita, Kaushik Raghavan,, Saranya Balamurugan, Prabavathy Vaiyapuri Ramalingam, Nair Sudha. Phylogenetic diversity of rhizobia associated with horsegram [Macrotyloma uniflorum (Lam.) Verdc.] grown in South India based on glnII, recA and 16S–23S intergenic sequence analyses, Current Microbiology (2011) 62 1230-1238.
- M.S. Vinod, H.M. Sankararamasubramanian, R. Priyanka, G. Ganesan and Ajay Parida. Gene expression analysis of volatile-rich male flowers of dioecious Pandanus fascicularis using expressed sequence tags, Journal of Plant Physiology (2010) 167, 914-919.
- M. Valanarasu, P. Kannan, S. Ezhilvendan, G. Ganesan, S. Ignacimuthu and P. Agastian. Antifungal and antifeedant activities of extracellular product of Streptomyces spp. ERI-04 isolated from Western Ghats of Tamil Nadu, Journal of Medical Mycology (2010) 20, 290-297
- G. Ganesan, H.M. Sankararamasubramanian, Jithesh M. Narayanan, K.R. Sivaprakash, Ajay Parida. Transcript level characterization of a cDNA encoding stress regulated NAC transcription factor in the mangrove plant Avicennia marina, Plant Physiology and Biochemistry (2008) 46, 928-934.
- GN1011- Plant Genetic Engineering
- 15GN2013- Molecular Techniques
- GN1024- Ethical Issues and IPR
Opportunities: Will be updated
Contact:
Dr. G. Ganesan
Assistant Professor
Department of Genetic Engineering
SRM University
Kattankulathur-603 203
Kanchipuram District
Tamilnadu, India
Email: ganesan.g@ktr.srmuniv.ac.in