Sampa Das

 

Senior Professor,

Division of Plant Biology

Ph.D.: University of Calcutta (Botany), 1981

Awards and Honours:

 

      Fellow of Indian National Science Academy, 2009

      Fellow of National Academy of Sciences India, 2009

 

Research interest and current activities:

 

  • Isolation, characterization and monitoring the functionality of insecticidal proteins from plant sources.

  • Development of insect resistant transgenic  rice, chickpea and mustard plants free of antibiotic resistant selection marker through the expression of mannose binding monocot plant lectins  and different Bt toxin genes

  • Study on the molecular interaction between receptor proteins identified from target insects and insecticidal lectins as well as different Bt proteins.

  • Developing understanding of the mechanism of defense response in plants when challenged by various fungal and bacterial pathogens. Isolation and characterization of differentially expressed defense response related genes, proteins from rice and chickpea plants detected at early stage of infection by Fusarium oxysporum f.sp.ciceris and Xanthomonas oryzae pv oryzae, respectively.

 

Group members with present status:

 

          
 

Dr. Sumanti Gupta 
RA , DBT Project

 

Dr. Saswati Sengupta  

RA, ISCB Project

 

Dr. Niranjana Behura  

RA, ISCB Project

 

Ms. Rumdeep Kaur Rangix  

 SRF, CSIR adhoc

 
                 
         
 

Ms. Anindita Sengupta

 SRF, DBT Programme Support

  

Mr. Amit Roy

 SRF

  

Ms. Arpita Bala,

SRF, DBT project

 

  

Ms. Moniya Chatterjee
JRF, CSIR NMITLI Project

  
         
 

Mr. Anirban Bhar,

 SRF CSIR adhoc

 

Mr. Ayan Das

JRF, CSIR Adhoc

 

Mr. Prithwi Ghosh
SRF, Inst. Integrated M.Sc. Ph. D. Programme Fellow

 

Mr. Sudipta Basu
Field Assistant
DBT  Programme/

Core Grant

  
             
       
  Mr. ArupKumar Dey,
 Helper D		  

Mr. Swarnava Das,
Laboratory Attendant,

DBT Project

  

Mr. Uttam Das,
Green House Assistant
DBT  Programme/

Core Grant

  

Important Publications:

  1. Transposon induced mutagenesis of Ri plasmids of Agrobacterium rhizogenes and alteration of hairy root syndrome of the transformed plant tissue. S. Das, C. Bhowmik and S. K. Sen. Ind. J. Exptl. Biol. 25: 371-374 (1987).

  2. Interaction of T DNA border sequences and Ti- plasmid vir funtions of Agrobacterium results in differential single stranded linear T-DNA molecule production and plant transformation. S. Das, D. Basu, P. Mukherjee and S. K. Sen. Ind. J. Exptl. Biol.  29:991-1001 (1991).

  3. Isolation and cloning of Bacillus thuringiensis var. Kurstaki HD-73 toxin gene and construction of a chimeric gene for expression in plants. D. Basu, S. Das, D. Banerjee & S. K. Sen. Ind. J. Explt. Biol. 29:1002-1009 (1991).

  4. Mechanism of DS1 excision from the genome of maize streak virus. W. H. Shen, S. Das, B. Hohn. Mol. Gen. Genet. 233(3):388-394 (1992).

  5. Monitoring functional property of the transgene through rapid amplification of cDNA ends in indica rice transformants. D. Basu, S. Das, P. Nayak and S. K. Sen. Current Science, 68:1140-1144 (1995).

  6. Expression of cryIA(c) gene of Bacillus thuringiensis in transgenic chickpea plants inhibits development of pod borer Heliothis armigera larvae. S. Kar, D. Basu, S. Das, N. A. Ramakrishnan, P. Mukherjee, P. Nayak and S. K. Sen. Transgen Res 6,:177-185 (1997) .

  7. Transgenic elite indica rice plants expressing cryIA(c) delta endotoxin of Bacillus thuringiensis are resistant against yellow stem borer (Scripophaga incertulas). P. Nayak, D. Basu, S. Das, A. Basu, D. Ghosh, N. A. Ramakrishnan, M. Ghosh and S. K. Sen. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 94,: 2111-2116 (1997) .

  8. High level expression of soyabean trypsin inhibitor gene in transgenic tobacco plants fail to confer resistance against damage caused by Helicoverpa armigera. A. K. Nandi, Debabrata Basu, Sampa Das and S. K. Sen. J. Biosci., 24, No.4,: 445-452 (1999).

  9. S.Bandopadhyay, A. Roy and S. Das Binding of   garlic (Allium sativum) leaf lectin to the gut receptors of homopteran pests is   correlated to its insecticidal activity. Plant   Science, 161(5),:1025-1033 (2001).

  10. Efficiency of Mannose Binding Plant Lectins in Controlling a Homopteran Insect, The Red Cotton Bug. A. Roy, S. Banerjee, P. Majumder, and S. Das. J. Agri. Food Chem, 50,: 6775-6779. [IF 2.56] (2002).

  11. The interaction of Allium sativum leaf lectin with a chaperonin  group of unique receptor protein isolated from a bacterial  endosymbiont of the mustard aphid. S. Banerjee, D. Hess, P. Majumder, D. Roy and S. Das. J. Biol. Chem. 279(22): 23782-23789 (2004).

  12. The potential of transgenic chickpeas for pest control and possible effects on non-target arthropods. J.Romeis, H. C. Sharma, K. K. Sharma, S. Das and B. K. Sarmah. Crop Protection 23: 923-938 (2004).

  13. Identification of receptors responsible for binding of the mannose specific lectin to the gut epithelial membrane of the target insects. P. Majumder, S.Banerjee and S. Das. Glycoconjugate J. 29: 525-530. [IF1.74] (2004).

  14. Constitutive and phloem specific Expression of Allium sativum leaf agglutinin (ASAL) to engineer aphid (Lipaphis erysimi) resistance in transgenic Indian mustard (Brassica juncea). I. Dutta, P. Majumder, K. Ray, P. Saha and S. Das. Plant Science, 169: 996-1007. [ IF 1.9.7] (2005).

  15. The efficacy of a novel insecticidal protein, Allium sativum leaf lectin (ASAL) against homopteran insect monitoredintransgenic tobacco. I. Dutta, P.Saha, P.Majumder, A. Sarkar, D. Chakraborti, S. Banerjee and S. Das. Plant Biotechnology Journal, 3: 601-611. [IF 4.5] (2005).

  16. Insecticidal Activity of Arum maculatum Tuber Lectin and its Binding to the  Glycosylated Insect Gut Receptors. P. Majumder, H.A. Mondal and S. Das. J. Agri. Food Chem. 53:6725-6729. [IF 2.56] (2005).

  17. Transgenic rice expressing Allium  Sativum leaf lectin with enhanced resistance against sap sucking insect pests. P. Saha, P. Majumder, I. Dutta, T. Ray, S.C. Roy, S. Das. Planta 223: 1329 – 1343 [I.F.3.199] (2006).

  18. A novel approach for developing resistance in rice against phloem limited viruses by antagonising the phloem feeding hemipteran vectors.  P. Saha, I. Dasgupta and S. Das. Plant Mol. Biol. 62:735-752: [I.F 3.85] (2006).

  19. Characterisation of vascular specific RSs1 and rolC promoters for their utilization and engineering plants to develop resistance against hemipteran insect pests. P. Saha, D. Chakraborti, A. Sarkar, I. Dutta, D. Basu and S. Das. Planta 226: 429-442 [I.F.3.1] (2007).

  20. Effectiveness of garlic lectin on red spider mites of tea. A. Roy, D. Chakraborti and S. Das. Journal of Plant Interaction 3: 157-162 [I.F.0.61] (2008).

  21. Cre/lox system to develop selectable marker freetransgenic tobacco plantsconferring resistance against sap sucking homoptera ninsect. D. Chakraborti, A. Sarkar, H. A. Mondal, D. Schuermann, B. Hohn, B. K. Sarmah and S. Das. Plant Cell Rep. 27:1623–1633 [I.F.2.301] (2008).

  22. Tissue specific expression of potent insecticidal Allium sativum leaf agglutinin (ASAL) in important pulse crop,chickpea Cicer arietinum L.) to resist the phloem feeding Aphis craccivora. D. Chakraborti, A. Sarkar, H. A. Mondal and S. Das. Transgenic Research. 18:529–544 [I.F.2.47] (2009).

  23. Homodimeric alkaline phosphatase located at Helicoverpa armigera midgut, a putative receptor of Cry1Ac containsα-GalNAc in terminal glycan structure as interactive epitope. A. Sarkar, D. Hess, H. A. Mondal, S. Banerjee, H. C. Sharma, and S. Das.  Journal. Proteome Research. 8: 1838-1848 [I.F.5.132] (2009).

  24. A Molecular Insight into the Early Events of Chickpea (Cicer arietinum) and Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. ciceri (Race1) Interaction Through cDNA-AFLP Analysis. S. Gupta, D. Chakrabort, R. K. Rangi, D. Basu, and S. Das. Phytopathology 99, No11, 1245-1257 [I.F.2.22] (2009).

  25. Selectable antibiotic resistance marker gene-free transgenic rice harbouring the garlic leaf lectin gene exhibits resistance to sap-sucking planthoppers. S. Sengupta, D. Chakraborti, H. A. Mondal and S. Das. Plant Cell Rep 29: 261-271 [I.F.2.301] (2010).

  26. Primary Metabolism of Chickpea is The Initial Target of Wound Inducing Early Sensed Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. ciceri Race I. S. Gupta, D. Chakraborti, A. Sengupta, D. Basu, and S. Das. PLoS ONE, 5(2) [I.F.4.35] (2010 a).

  27. In search of Decoy/Guardee to R Genes: Deciphering the role of sugars in defense against Fusarium wilt in chickpea. S. Gupta, D. Chakraborti, D. Basu and S. Das. Plant Signaling and Behavior 5:1081-1087) (2010 b).

  28. Functional Alteration of a Dimeric Insecticidal Lectin to a Monomeric Antifungal Protein Correlated to Its Oligomeric Status. N. Banerjee, S. Sengupta, A. Roy, P. Ghosh, K. Das and S. Das. PLos ONE, 6(4), e18593. (2011).

  29. Allergenicity assessment of Allium sativum leaf agglutinin, a potential candidate protein for developing sap sucking insect resistant food crops. H. A. Mondal, D. Chakraborti, P. Majumder, P. Roy, A. Roy, S. Gupta Bhattacharya and S. Das. PLoS ONE. 6(11) /ez 77716. (2011).

Book Chapters Published :

  1. S. K. Sen, S. Das, A. Banerjee, N. Jasani, M. Shah and S. Ghosh. Meiotic developmental features relevant to prophase  specific chromosomal characteristics in Saccharomyces cerevisi. In Trends in Chromosome Research,  Springer-Verlag pp 222-254, 1988

  2. Saha P., Dutta  I., Banerjee S. and Das S.  Allium sativum leaf lectin: A potent   sap feeding insect control protein expressed in rice and mustard ( chapter 29) in  Recent Advances in Plant Biotechnology and its Applications Edited by Aswini  Kumar and S. K. Sopory, 2007.

Patents granted  :

  • A new mannose binding insecticidal lectin isolated from seeds of Annona squmosa and process for its preparation (Patent No. 239569).

  • A Mannose binding lectin from leaves of Allium sativum effective against whitefly, and process for its preparation. (Patent No.228783).

Past students completed Ph.D.:

  • Sanchita RoyChowdhuri “Attempts to develop a Nuclear male sterile Brassica juncea line using anther specific promoter expression of a killer gene” from  University of Calcutta in 1999.
  • Rajalaksmi Venkata Raman on “Development of the resto-Ration system in mustard (Brassica juncea) in the context of Barnase and Barstar Strategy for development of nuclear male sterility” from Jadavpur University in 2000.
  • Anita Roy on “Possible use of plant lectins with insecticidal and anti-feedant properties in crop protection” from Jadavpur University in 2002.
  • Santanu Banerjee on “ Studies on the Insecticidal Activities of Allium sativum (Garlic)  Lectin(s) and  Determination  of of their Mechanism of Action on Homopteran Insect Pests”      from Jadavpur University in 2004.
  • Pralay majumder on “Comparative Studies of The Insecticidal Activities of Alliaceae And Araceae Lectins And & Determination of Their Mechanism of Action on Homopteran Insect Pests” from Jadavpur University in 2005.
  • Indrajit Datta on “Attempts to develop resistance in Brassica juncea (oil seed mustard) against Lipaphis erysimi (aphid ) with Allium sativum ( garlic) leaf lectin” from Jadavpur University in 2005.
  • Prasenjit Saha on “ Development of insect resistance in indica rice cultivars: A crop management strategy” from Jadavpur University in 2007.
  • Dipankar Chakraborti on “Expression of mannose binding garlic lectin in chickpea to protect from the attack of sucking insect pest” from Jadavpur University in 2007.
  • Anindya Sarkar on “Development of transgenic insect resistant chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) plants with Bacillus thuringiensis en-dotoxin gene” from Jadavpur University in 2008.
  • Sumanti Gupta on “An approach towards understanding of resistance in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) against Fusarium oxysporum f.sp ciceris” from Jadavpur University in 2009.
  • Hossain Ali Mondal on “Study on the efficacy of Mannose binding plant lectins against agriculturally important homopteran insect pests and its possible mode of action” from Jadavpur University in 2009.
  • Shubhodipa Sengupta on “Development of marker free insect resistant transgenic rice plant type: A clean gene approach” from Jadavpur University in 2010.
  • Neelanjana Banerjee on “Structural characterization & functional studies of few clinically and agrono-mically important proteins from Jadavpur University in 2010.

Contact information

 Email Id:             sampa@bic.boseinst.ernet.in

                              sampadpb@gmail.com


 Fax :                   (033) 2355-3886

 Telephone No. : (033) 2569-3251 ( Office- Direct);

                             (033) 2335-9393 (R)