Kalyan K. Mondal
Raipur, Chhattisgarh| Grant Category: | Fulbright-Nehru Academic & Professional Excellence Award (Research) |
| Project Title: | Functionally verifying the activation of rice OsSWEET15 by PthXo2-TALE of Indian Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae, causing bacterial blight of rice, using CRISPR-Cas and bioinformatic tools. |
| Field of Study: | Agricultural Sciences |
| Home Institution: | ICAR-National Institute of Biotic Stress Management, Columbia, MO |
| Host Institution: | University of Missouri |
| Grant Start Month: | October,2024 |
| Duration of Grant: | Nine months |
Brief Bio:
Dr. Kalyan K. Mondal is presently working as Joint Director (Research) at the ICAR-National Institute of Biotic Stress Management, Raipur, Chhattisgarh, India. Prior to joining ICAR-NIBSM, he worked as Principal Scientist at Division of Plant Pathology, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi. He worked extensively on the bacterial type-3-secretion-system (T3SS)-effectors and how bacterial pathogens use the effectors to subvert plant immune responses, PTI/ETI. He profiled the T3SS-effectors in two important bacterial pathogens, Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. punicae (Xap) and X. oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo) infecting pomegranate and rice. His group identified key effectors (XopF, XopR in Xoo; XopC2, XopL, XopN in Xap) that immensely contribute to suppress plant immune responses. Using Y2H system his team identified the interactor(s) for effectors and further demonstrated that silencing the interactors in host plants led to disease resistance. Dr. Kalyan is a Fellow of National Academy of Agricultural Sciences.
During his Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Fellowship, Dr. Mondal is investigating the TAL effector PthXo2 of Xoo and its functional role in activating OsSWEET15 during blight disease development using CRISPR-Cas editing tools. This work may help understanding OsSWEET-mediated pathogenesis and identify novel targets to counter bacterial blight disease in rice.