Dr. Pooja Choudhary

Biography

Dr. Pooja Choudhary joined Department of Biotechnology, Jaypee Institute of Information Technology, Noida as Assistant Professor in August 2022. Prior her appointment in JIIT, she was working as post-doctoral fellow in Central University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad. Dr. Pooja completed her doctoral thesis in plant biotechnology from DBT institute, National Institute of Plant Genome Research (NIPGR), Delhi as CSIR research fellow (CSIR JRF NET 2012). She did her Masters in Biotechnology from Pune University in 2012 and BSc. In Biotechnology from K.K. Wagh College, Pune University in 2010. She is also the recipient of Summer Research Fellowship from IASc, INSA and NASI, and worked as research fellow in IISc, Bangalore in 2011.

RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS

Cereals are considered as major food crops, which provide essential nutrients to human population. However, increasing threats of biotic and abiotic stress are greatly influencing the crop productivity every year. This is a significant challenge to attain global food security. Developing the mechanisms of stress tolerance at molecular level in these essential crops is of prime interest to develop new stress tolerant cultivars. Considering this, significant advancement has been made in omics techniques to explore the molecular processes of stress tolerance in crops. Given this, I have employed these advanced omics technologies to exploit stress signalling in crops. I have extensive research experience in -omics based analysis of stress responses in cereal crops by working in reputed organizations in India. The research focused on the development of blast resistant rice, where the comparative proteomics and phosphoproteomic analysis of contrasting rice cultivars identified potential candidate genes underlying the mechanisms of disease susceptibility vs. immunity in rice. Additionally, I was part of multi-disciplinary collaborative projects, where I contributed to the development of an efficient and reproducible transformation method in legume crop, Cicer arietinum, to expedite functional genomics studies in these recalcitrant crops.

Considering the ongoing issues of malnutrition, changing climate, food security, soil degradation and increasing challenges of diet related diseases, current cereal crops are not sufficient to overcome these problems. Hence, during my post-doctoral experience, I diverted my research towards millets, as they are considered as nutricereals. I have contributed to transcriptomic analysis of important millet species, namely, foxtail millet and kodo millet. My research interest involves understanding the molecular mechanisms of stress responses and nutritional aspects in millet crops.

PUBLICATIONS

International Journals

• Kanika Narula, Arunima Sinha*, Pooja Choudhary*, Sudip Ghosh, Eman Elagamey, Archana Sharma, Atreyee Sengupta, Dr. Niranjan Chakraborty, and Subhra Chakraborty Combining Extracellular Matrix Proteome and Phosphoproteome of Chickpea and Meta-Analysis Reveal Novel Proteoforms and Evolutionary Significance of Clade-Specific Wall-Associated Events in Plant. PlantDirect (Accepted for publication) * Equal authors contribution.
• Choudhary P, Shukla P, Muthamilarasan M. Genetic enhancement of climate-resilient traits in small millets. (HELIYON CELL PRESS) Volume 9, Issue 4, April 2023, e14502.
• Aggarwal PR, Pramitha L, Choudhary P, Singh RK, Shukla P, Prasad M, Muthamilarasan M. Multi-omics intervention in Setaria to dissect climate-resilient traits: Progress and prospects. Front Plant Sci. 2022 Aug 31;13:892736. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2022.892736.
• Pooja Choudhary1*, Praful Salvi2, Pooja Rani Aggarwal3, Malika Kapoor1, Mehanathan Muthamilarasan3, Molecular insight into auxin signaling and its associated network to regulate stress responses in rice (Oryza sativa L.) (under revision)
• Mehanathan Muthamilarasan, Bonthala Venkata Suresh, Roshan Kumar Singh, Pooja Choudhary, Pooja Rani Aggarwal & Manoj Prasad Comparative Transcriptome Profiling of Two Contrasting Foxtail Millet Cultivars Provides Insights into Molecular Mechanisms Underlying Dehydration Stress Response. J Plant Growth Regul (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00344-022-10869-x
• Choudhary P, Muthamilarasan M. Modulating physiological and transcriptional regulatory mechanisms for enhanced climate resilience in cereal crops. Journal of Plant Physiology,Volume 278, November 2022, 153815.
• Aggarwal PR, Pramitha L, Choudhary P, Singh RK, Shukla P, Prasad M and Muthamilarasan M (2022) Multi-omics intervention in Setaria to dissect climate-resilient traits: Progress and prospects. Front. Plant Sci. 13:892736.doi: 10.3389/fpls.2022.892736
• Suresh BV^*, Choudhary P^*, Aggarwal PR, Rana S, Singh RK, Ravikesavan R, Prasad M, Muthamilarasan M. De novo transcriptome analysis identifies key genes involved in dehydration stress response in kodo millet (Paspalum scrobiculatum L.). Genomics Volume 114, Issue 3, May 2022, 110347. (* equal contribution)
• Choudhary P, Aggarwal PR, Mani V, Muthamilarasan M. Biotechnological interventions for improving the seed longevity in cereal crops: Progress and prospects. Critical Reviews in Biotechnology, 20;1-17. doi: 10.1080/07388551.2022.2027863.
• Choudhary P, Pramitha L, Rana S, Verma S, Aggarwal PR, Muthamilarasan M. Hormonal crosstalk in regulating salinity stress tolerance in graminaceous crops. Physiologia Plantarum. 2021;1– 10. https://doi.org/10.1111/ppl.13558
• Choudhary P, Aggarwal PR, Muthamilarasan M. Molecular and metabolomic intervention for identifying potential bioactive molecules to mitigate diseases and their impacts on crop plants. Physiological and Molecular Plant Pathology, vol 114; 2021; 101624.
• Shukla V*, Choudhary P*, Rana S*, Muthamilarasan M. Structural evolution and function of stress associated proteins in regulating biotic and abiotic stress responses in plants. Journal of Plant Biochemistry and Biotechnology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13562-021-00704-x. (* equal contribution)
• Aggarwal PR, Nag P, Choudhary P*, Chakraborty N, Chakraborty S. Genotype-independent Agrobacterium rhizogenes-mediated root transformation of chickpea: a rapid and efficient method for reverse genetics studies. Plant Methods 2018 14:55. (* 2^nd author)
• Narula K, Choudhary P, Ghosh S1, Elagamey E1, Chakraborty N1, Chakraborty S1. Comparative Nuclear Proteomics Analysis Provides Insight into the Mechanism of Signaling and Immune Response to Blast Disease Caused by Magnaportheoryzae in Rice. Proteomics. 2019 Feb;19(3):e1800188. Doi: 10.1002/pmic.201800188. Epub 2019 Jan 23.

BOOK CHAPTERS:

• Pramitha L, Choudhary P, Rana S, Singh RK, Das P, Sharma S, Rajasekaran R, Prasad M, Muthamilarasan M (2022) Foxtail millet (Setariaitalica L.): A model for small millets. In: Farooq M, Siddique KHM (eds). Neglected and Underutilized Crops: Future Smart Food, Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-323-90537-4.00020-X
• Pramitha L, Choudhary P, Das P, Sharma S, Karthi V, Vemuri H, Muthamilarasan M (2022) Integrating genomics and phenomics tools to dissect climate resilience traits in small millets. In: Pudake RN, Solanke AU, Sevanthi AM, Rajendrakumar P (eds). Omics of Climate Resilient Small Millets, Springer, pp 275-298
• Shukla P, Shukla S, Pandey K, Choudhary P, Rajasekaran R, Muthamilarasan M* (2023) Genetics and genomics of kodo millet (Paspalum scrobiculatum L.). In: Gahlaut V, Jaiswal V (eds). Genetics and Genomics of High-Altitude Crops, Springer (in press)

PAPER PRESENTED IN CONFERENCES:

• “Bioenergy crops: Unveiling applications in environmental sustainability”, International Conference on Advances in Biosciences and Biotechnology, ICABB-24, JIIT, Noida,  31^st Jan – 2 Feb 2024.
• International conference on proteomics for cell biology and molecular medicine. 10th annual meeting of Proteomics Society India, NCCS Pune, December 12- December 14, 2018.
• Comprehensive Analysis of Nuclear Phosphoproteome of Chickpea (Cicer arietinum). 9th Annual Meeting of Proteomics Society, India (PSI), International Conference on Proteomics in Health and Disease, Institute of Life Sciences, Bhubaneshwar, November 30- December 02, 2017.
• Study of patho-stress responsive nuclear proteome in rice (Oryza sativa L.): a functional approach. 8th Annual Meeting of Proteomics Society, India 3rd Meeting of Asia Oceania Agricultural Proteomics Organization; International Conference on Functional & Interaction Proteomics: Application in Food & Health, National Institute of Plant Genome Research, New Delhi, India, 14th – 17th December 2016.
• Phosphoproteome& proteomic analyses of extracellular matrix reveal interplay of predicted and unexpected components of cell wall signalling in plant: 6th Annual meeting of Proteomics Society, INDIA “Proteomics from Discovery to Functions” International Conference, 7th- 9th December 2014.
• Anticancer activity of Secondary Metabolites on Cancer cells. International Conference on Current Trends in Medicinal Plants Research, Department of Botany, University of Pune, India, 10th – 12th January, 2012.
• 3rd National Conference on Biotechnology and Bioinformatics BIOBUZZ..’10.Department of Business Management, Padmashree Dr. D. Y. Patil University, 04 September 2010.

WORKSHOPS AND SEMINARS

• One month international workshop on “Genomes, Networks and Pathways, organized by DecodeLife from 16 September to 8th October, 2023.
• “Next Generation Sequencing Data Analysis”, Department of Biotechnology, JUIT, Wakhnaghat, March 20-24, 2023.
• Structural Proteomics of Macromolecules Complexes using X-ray Crystallography and Mass- Spectrometry. Regional Centre for Biotechnology, Faridabad, December 18th -20th, 2016.
• Vigyan Yagnya Mega Science & Technology Fair. Somaiya Grounds, Mumbai, 27th – 29th January 2012.
• The workshop on Molecular Biology (X-pert Teaching Kits) organized by HiMedia Laboratories Pvt. Ltd. Department of Biotechnology, K.T.H.M. college, Nashik, India, 18th august 2011.
• Forensic workshop at TECHFEST IIT Bombay. TECHFEST 2011, IIT Bombay, India.
• Frontiers in Genetic Engineering. G. E. Society’s H. P. T. Arts & R. Y. K. Science College, Nashik, 5th- 6th February 2010.
• Microbial Biotechnology: Tools & Techniques. Institute of Life & Environment Sciences, Nashik, 29th April – 10th May 2008.

WORKSHOP ORGANIZED

Workshop on “Next Generation Sequencing and its Implications in Agriculture and Human Health”, 05 to 09 December 2022, Department of Biotechnology.

SELECTED ABSTRACTS PUBLISHED IN CONFERENCES

• Bioenergy crops: Unveiling applications in environmental sustainability. Pooja rani aggarwal (aggarwal.pooja28@yahoo.com), Pooja choudhary*(pooja.choudhary@mail.jiit.ac.in) ICABB-23
• Resistant starch from millet: A sustainable functional food ingredient. Riddhima Pandey, Mansi Awasthi, Pooja Choudhary. Department of Biotechnology, Jaypee institute of information and technology, Sector 62 Noida, Uttar Pradesh 201309,India. ICABB-24
• Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning approaches for predicting the multi-drug resistance mutations in Mycobacterium tuberculosis: Analysis of genes, proteins, and drug interactions. Bhavya Sharma1, Aayush Walia1, Pooja Choudhary1* Department of Biotechnology, Jaypee Institute of Information Technology. ICABB-24

AWARDS/SCHOLARSHIP:

• CSIR-UGC-NET-JRF (Life Sciences) December 2012
• CSIR-UGC-NET (Life Sciences) June 2012
• Junior Research Fellowship by CSIR from August 2013 to August 2015
• Senior Research Fellowship by CSIR from August 2015 to August 2018
• Institutional Senior Research Fellowship by NIPGR (2018-2020)
• Post-doctoral Fellowship from University of Hyderabad (2020-2022)
• Summer Research Fellowship sponsored by IASc, INSA and NASI at Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Research Centre, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore.

MEMBER OF PROFESSIONAL BODIES

Life member of Proteomics Society of India

REVIEWER/EDITORIAL MEMBER

• Editorial Manager online submission and peer review tracking system for PLOS ONE
• Review Editor in “Frontiers in Agronomy editors”.
• Reviewer in “Plant Physiology and Biochemistry”
• Reviewer in “Frontiers in Plant Science”

PH.D. GUIDANCE

PhD student (Ongoing): 1