Kumkum Kumari, a doctoral student working in the Plant Molecular Biology Laboratory at MSSRF was awarded the second prize for a poster presentation titled ‘Alternative splicing of Plasma Membrane Protein 3 [Nt(t)PMP3-2] in polyploid Nicotiana tabacum  is derived from Nicotiana tomentosiformis parent’ at the National Conference on “Recent Trends in Genetics Engineering and Biotechnology” organized by the Department of Genetic Engineering, SRM University, Kattankulathur on 25-26 September 2017.  She is currently pursuing her Ph.D under the supervision of Dr. Gayatri Venkataraman, Principal Scientist, Biotechnology Program Area, MSSRF.  This research work was recently published in Plant Physiology and Biochemistry.

The research work titled ‘T-homoeolog specific plasma membrane protein 3 [Nt(t)PMP3-2] in polyploid Nicotiana tabacum shows conserved alternative splicing, derived from extant Nicotiana tomentosiformis parent’ was published in Plant Physiology and Biochemistry recently (Kumari et al., 2017; doi: 10.1016/j.plaphy.2017.09.011.) takes off from the chance discovery that the  Nt(t)PMP3-2 gene from the polyploid species Nicotiana tabacum (tobacco)  produces three different gene products (mRNAs/transcripts). The research work shows that not only is the   Nt(t)PMP3-2  gene inherited from its diploid paternal parent, Nicotiana tomentosiformis but also  that the same gene in the paternal parent shows a similar pattern of gene expression, coding for three different transcripts. Thus,  in addition to inheriting genes, polyploid species may also inherit networks that control how many mRNA/transcripts the given gene may code for.

Publication

T-homoeolog specificplasma membrane protein 3 [Nt(t)PMP3-2] in polyploid Nicotianatabacum showsconserved alternative splicing, derived from extant Nicotianatomentosiformis parent. Kumari K, Jegadeeson V, Suji S, Venkataraman G, Parida A. Plant PhysiolBiochem. 2017 doi:10.1016/j.plaphy.2017.09.011.