Arup Mukherjee's Biography

Arup Mukherjee, Senior Scientist, ICAR-CICR

Dr. Arup K. Mukherjee started his research career as an SRF and Ph.D. student in the Division of Plant Pathology, Central Rice Research institute, Cuttack , Orissa , India . He studied the epidemiological aspects of slow-blasting resistance in rice in detail. He submitted his Ph.D. thesis on 'COMPONENTS OF SLOW BLASTING RESISTANCE IN RICE' in 1994, which was evaluated abroad and was awarded the degree on March 1996. He has developed different techniques to estimate the host tissue damaged during the host pathogen interaction. He is the first person to develop a technique to estimate accurately the lesion area of rice blast disease. His extensive studies on the blast disease epidemiology have resulted in a number of publications in different journals of National and International repute. In his post Ph.D. work he has studied the isozyme variation pattern in maize inbred lines of India . He has tagged and mapped the white rust resistance gene in Indian mustard by using molecular markers . He has tagged the genes for seed coat colour in Brassica juncea . He has also constructed RAPD linkage map in Brassica juncea . He has studied the genetic variations in the local isolates of loose smut pathogen in wheat using RAPD, ISSR and AFLP markers. Dr. Mukherjee initiated a program to construct fine map of the white rust resistance gene in B. juncea by using AFLP markers which at present been taken over by other Scientist. Dr. Mukherjee was actively involved in DNA fingerprinting of Brassica spp . Recently while working as Scientist in the Regional Plant Resource Centre, Bhubaneswar , Orissa , India , Dr. Mukherjee is engaged on studying molecular phylogeny and characterization of different tree species. Recently while working as Scientist in the Regional Plant Resource Centre, Bhubaneswar , Orissa , India , Dr. Mukherjee is engaged on studying molecular phylogeny and characterization of different tree species. He has already completed the molecular characterization of different groups of mangrove species using RAPD and AFLP markers. He and his group have standardized the isolation of highly mucilaginous plants of the family Cactaceae and also studied the genetic relations among the 31 species of Mammillaria . He is actively involved in studying the molecular phylogeny of three tribes like Desmodieae, Millettieae and Cassiineae of the family Leguminaseae. His group has justified the differentiation of the Genus Cassia to three genera Cassia , Senna and Chamaechrista . His group has characterized different cultivars of ginger, turmeric, Mussaenda , Chrysanthemum , Rose, Canna , Mango and different rare and endangered plants of the Eastern Ghats using molecular markers like RAPD and ISSR markers. While working as a Visiting Scientist with DBT Overseas Associate ship in the Department of Biology, Israel Institute of Technology, Technion, Haifa 32000, Israel on " Common pathways to leaf senescence and defense response: proteomic approach'' Dr. Mukherjee has identified number of genes which are up regulated both in senescence and defense against pathogen attack in plants. Dr. Mukherjee for the first time identified, cloned and sequenced the genes expressed during the compatible interaction between Arabidopsis thaliana and Alternaria brassicicola . He also studied for the first time the comparative proteomics of A. brassicicola cultured in different host plant (compatible and incompatible interaction) extract and identified number of genes which are expressed in A. brassicicola when cultured in incompatible plant extract. The same observation was confirmed using RT-PCR.