PROF. NEERA BHALLA-SARIN
Professor
School of Life Sciences
Jawaharlal Nehru University
New Delhi -110067, India.
Room No.       : 305
Off. Phone      : 91-11-26704523
Residence      : 91-11-25598468
E-mail             : neerasarin@rediffmail.com

Education

Ph.D (Life Sciences) from Jawaharlal Nehru University (1978).
M.Phil (Life Sciences) from Jawaharlal Nehru University (1973).
M.Sc. (Botany) from Delhi University (1972).
B.Sc. (Bot. Hons.) Delhi University (1970).     

Career

1978-1979                   S.R.F., U.G.C. Project

1980-1983                   Research Associate, ICAR Project, JNU

1984-1985                   Research Associate, DST Project, JNU

1986-1993                   Assistant Professor, J.N.U.

1993-2001                   Associate Professor, J.N.U.

2001-till date                Professor, J.N.U.

Area of Research

Genetic manipulation of plants for developmental studies, stress alleviation and value addition. 

Research Projects

a)  Completed

  1. Isolation and physiological and biochemical studies on salt tolerance using  Arachis hypogaea L. cultures (C.S.I.R.).

  2. Isolation of glyphosate tolerant lines of Arachis hypogaea L. and investigation    on the mechanisam of tolerance (U.G.C.).

  3. Purification of DAHP synthase, its subcellular partitioning and regulation during growth and differentiation in Brassica juncea (C.S.I.R.).

  4. Regeneration and transformation of Cajanus cajan (D.S.T.).

  5. Development of transformation systems in grain legumes and transfer of anti-senescence genes. (Indo-U.S. funded by U.S.D.A.).

  6. Mass-scale propagation of Litchi chinensis Sonn. through in vitro culture (D.B.T.).

  7. Modulation of the expression of the Glyoxalase 1 and the Glyoxalase II Gene    in Brassica juncea for salt-stress tolerance (NATP funded by World Bank).

  8. Regeneration and transformation of Vigna mungo L., DST, 2002-2006.

  9. Identification of Novel proteins in salt-tolerant vs sensitive cell lines of Arachis hypogaea for biotechnological application, UGC excellence, 2002-2007.

b) Ongoing

  1. Development of marker free salt stress tolerant transgenics of Vigna mungo, Indo-Swiss 2004-2007.

  2. Modulation of g- tocopherol methyl tranferase (g-TMT) gene expression in transgenic Brassica juncea  for increased a- tocopherol production. CSIR: 2006-2009.

Awards and Honors

  1. Selected for the Cochran Fellowship in Biotechnology by the U.S.D.A. for visiting various Universities and Research laboratories in the U.S. from August18 – September 1, 2001 and October 8 – 21, 2003.

  2. Awarded George Weston Fellowship by the Commonwealth Awards   Division, Association of Commonwealth Universities. 1998 to wok at the University of Alberta, Canada.

  3.  One student was awarded the John S.Song Award in 1997 for outstanding work in tissue culture under my supervision. He was one of the eight awardees from  all over the world and the only Indian.

  4. The same student was also awarded Asia Pacific Weed Science Young Scientists Award for his work on glyphosate tolerant lines of Arachis hypogaea L. carried out in my laboratory.

  5. Visiting Scientist in the Indo-Finnish Cultural Exchange Programme by the U.G.C., (1998).

  6. Invited to deliver lectures in the Univ. of Helsinki, Finland; Univ. of Victoria, Canada; Biotechnology Institute, Estonia. (1998) and F.M.I., Basel and Minneapolis, Minnesota (2006).

  7. Was a sponsored participant at the Second Int. Weed Control Congress held in Copenhagen, Denmark, (1996).

  8. Was a sponsored participant at the Crop Science Congress, Hamburg,   Germany,(2000).

  9. Was a sponsored scientist for the SAARC workshop on “Transformation in  plants” at Lahore, Pakistan, (1998).

  10. Recipient of Fellowship award to Indian Scientists for participation in the16th Intl. Congress of Biochem. and Mol. Biol. at New Delhi (September 1994).

  11. Was awarded a certificate for participating in a short term course on “Educational workshop on presentation of advances in biochemistry and biotechnology” organized by the NBTB training programme at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, (1988).

  12. Received prizes and certificates in the scientific debates and seminars organized annually by the Botanical Society,  University of Delhi.

  13. Recipient of the All India National Science Talent Search Award.

  14. Served as Vice President, Botanical Society, Delhi Univ., Delhi.

  15. Delivered talks on All India Radio, New Delhi, on “Conservation of forests   and water”.

  16. Interview about my research work was broadcast in the “Pride of India” programme by Radio Copenhagen, Denmark (1996 & 1998).

  17. Invited for delivering lectures to the in-service teachers of various colleges at the Staff College as well as Kendriya Vidyalayas (Central Schools).

  18. Invited to inspire the school students (J.D. Tytler School, New Delhi) to take up Pure Science as a career.        

  19. Invited to serve as a judge for the Scientific Debate Competition organized by Centre for Biotechnology, J.N.U. on National Science Day as well as at the School of Life Sciences at the ‘Biosparks’ programme.

  20. Invited by IAEO, Vienna for discussions on projects on “Improvement of Horticultural plants and abiotic stress tolerance.

  21. Invited by Indira Gandhi National open Univ. (IGNOU) for audio as well as video lectures for long distance education.

Membership

  1. Selected to receive membership in the Int. Soc. of Plant Mol. Biology (I S P M B) for 1997, 1998 and 1999 by the Biotechnology Action Council (BAC) of UNESCO.

  2. Member, New York Academy of Sciences 1994-95.

  3. Member, Society of In Vitro Biology 1997.

  4. Member, Cell Biology Society.

  5. Member, Academic Committee, Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic  Plants, Lucknow.

  6. Member Academic Committee, National Centre for Plant Genome Research (N.C.P.G.R.), New Delhi.

  7. Member, Biosafety Committee, N.C.P.G.R., N. Delhi.

  8. Co-chairperson, working group of Botany for National Science Digital.Library, NISCAIR, New Delhi.

  9. Member, Society of Biological Chemists.

Collaborations

I have collaborations with my faculty colleagues from School of Life Sciences. I also have / had collaborations with scientists from TERI, I.C.G.E.B., Delhi University, and United States Department of Agriculture, U.S.A.. Under the Indo-Swiss Project, I am currently collaborating with Prof. Thomas Hohn at the FMI, Basel, Switzerland.   

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

  1. Yusuf M.A. and Bhalla Sarin N. (2006) Antioxidant value addition in human diets: Genetic transformation of Brassica juncea with γ-tocopherol methyl transferase gene for increased α-tocopherol production. Transgenic Research 16(1): 109-113.

  2. Yadav S.K., Singla-Pareek S.L., Kumar M., Pareek A., Saxena M., Bhalla Sarin N. and Sopory S.K. (2006) Characterization and functional validation of glyoxalase II  from rice. Protein Expression and Purification 51: 126-132.

  3. Sudan C., Shiva Prakash N., Bhomkar P., Jain S. and Bhalla Sarin N. (2006) Ubiquitous presence of β-glucuronidase (Gus) in plants and its regulation in some model plants. Planta 224(4): 853-864.

  4. Jain S., Srivastava S., Bhalla Sarin N. and Kav N. (2006) Proteomics reveals elevated levels of PR10 proteins in saline-tolerant peanut (Arachis hypogaea) calli. Plant Physiology and Biochemistry 44: 253-259.

  5. Saxena.M, Bisht R, Debroy S., Sopory S.K., Sarin N.B. (2005). Cloning and characterization of a Mitochondrial glyoxalase II from Brassica juncea that is upregulated by NaCl, Zn and ABA. Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications 336:813-819

  6. Shiva prakash, N., Sunita Koul and Neera Bhalla-Sarin (2003). Germinating pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan L.) seeds secrete factor (s) having ethylene-antagonistlike effects. Physiologia Plantarum. 118: 1-8

  7. Neera Bhalla-Sarin, U.S. Prasad, A.S. Kantharajah and S. Mohan Jain (2003).  Micropropagation of Litchi (Litchi chinensis Sonn.) In: S.M. Jain and K. Ishi (eds.) Micropropagation of woody trees and fruits, 721-731. Kluwer Academic Publishers, The Netherlands.

  8. Neera Bhalla-Sarin and U.S. Prasad 2003. In Vitro regeneration and transformation of Litchi chinensis Sonn. In (P.K. Jaiwal and R.P. Singh eds.).Plant Genetic Engineering vol. 6: Improvement of major vegetables and fruitCrops pp. 211-222. Sci Tech Publishing LLC, Houston, U.S.A.

  9. Dilip K. Das, Prasanna Bhomkar, Shiva Prakash, N. and Neera Bhalla-Sarin (2002).Improved method of regeneration of blackgram (Vigna mungo L.) through liquidCulture. In Vitro (Plant). 38 (5): 456-459.

  10. S.C. Maheshwari, S.K. Sopory, S.P. Khurana and Neera Bhalla-Sarin (2001). The molecularbasis of morphogenesis in plants – The making of the Arabidopsis flower    Phytomorphology (Golden Jubilee Issue) 117-137. 

  11. M. Jain, D. Choudhary, P.K. Kale and N.B. Sarin (2001). Salt – and glyphosate – induced increase in glyoxalase 1 activity in cell lines of groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.)Physiologia Plantarum . 114: 499-505.

  12. M. Jain, G.Mathur, S. Koul and N.B. Sarin (2001). Ameliorative effects of proline onsalt-stress-induced lipid peroxidation in cell lines of groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.)Plant Cell Reports vol. 20(5): 463-468.

  13. Mukesh Jain and Neera Bhalla-Sarin (2001). Glyphosate induced increase in glutathione-S-transferase activity and glutathione content in groundnut. (Arachis hypogaea L.) Pesticide  Biochem. and Physiology 69: 145-152.

  14. Mukesh Jain, and Neera Bhalla-Sarin (2000). Effect of glyphosate on the activity of DAHP synthase isozymes in callus cultures of goundnut (Arachis hypogaea L) selected in Vitro.Indian Journal of Biochemistry and Biophysics 37: 235-240.

  15. Mukesh Jain, Raj K. Bhatnagar and Neera Bhalla-Sarin (1999). Isolation and     biochemical diagnosis of cell lines of groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L) selected on glyphosate. Pesticide Science 55: 1-7.

  16. Ranjana Sharma, Raj K. Bhatnagar and Neera Bhalla-Sarin,(1993).  Regulation of DAHP      synthase and chorismate mutase during in vitro differentiation of Brassica juncea.  Physiologia Plantarum, 88: 281-286.

  17. D.K Das, N. Shiva Prakash, N. Bhalla-Sarin.(1999). Multiple shoot induction in litchi   (Litchi chinensis Sonn.) a tropical tree species. Plant Cell Reports. 18: 691-695.

  18. Dilip K. Das, Shiva Prakash N and Neera Bhalla-Sarin(1998). An efficient regeneration system of black gram (Vigna mungo L ) through organogenesis. Plant Science 134: 199-206.

  19. Mohan Jain and N.Bhalla-Sarin(1997). Haploidy in Petunia. In: In vitro Haploid   production in higher plants. Eds. S. Mohan Jain, S.K. Sopory and R.E. Veilleux Vol. 5: 53-71., Kluwer Academic Publishers.

  20. Shiva Prakash N., Deepak Pental and Neera Bhalla-Sarin (1994). Regeneration of pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan) from cotyledonary node via multiple shoot formation.Plant Cell Reports 13: 623-627.

  21. Shiva Prakash N. and Neera Bhalla Sarin, (1993).Isolation of salt tolerant cell lines of Cajanus Cajan and comparative study of their physiological responses with intact plants under salt stress.  Plant Physiology and Biochemistry 20(1): 11-15.

  22. Ranjana Sharma, Raj K. Bhatnagar and Neera Bhalla-Sarin,(1993).Regulation of DAHP synthase and chorismate mutase during in vitro differentiation of Brassica juncea.  Physiologia Plantarum, 88: 281-286.

  23. Neera Bhalla-Sarin, Anu Gupta, Shiva Prakash and Biplab Biswas,(1991).Isolation  and characterization of a salt tolerant line of Arachis hypogaea using in vitro cultures.  Acta Horticulturae 289: 219-222.

  24. Bhalla-Sarin Neera, Sopory S. K. and Guha Mukherjee, S. (1981).  Yield of protoplasts from Arabiodopsis thaliana and its application in physiological studies.  Phytomorphology 31:101-105.

  25. Bhalla-Sarin Neera, Sopory S.K. and Guha – Mukherjee, Sipra,(1976).Studies on   isolation and fusion of protoplasts of Arabidopsis.  Arabidopsis Information Service 13: 200-204.

Genes cloned in the lab and their accession numbers:

  1. Bisht R., Singla-Pareek, S.L., Sopory, S.K. and Bhalla-Sarin, N. 2003. The  glyoxalase    II of Brassica juncea complete cds. Accession no. AY 185202.

  2. Jain S. and Sarin N.B. 2005. Arachis hypogaea Pathogenesis related protein (AhPR10), partial mRNA. Accession No. AM157182

  3. DebRoy S., Saxena, M. and Bhalla Sarin, N. 2005 Brassica juncea leafy-like protein  mRNA, complete cds. Accession no. AY 729757

  4. Divya Shrivastava, Renu Deswal, S.K.Sopory and Neera Bhalla Sarin 2006. Glyoxalase I from salt tolerant cell lines of Arachis hypogaea L. variety JL-24, mRNA complete cds. Accession    no. DQ989209

  5. Divya Shrivastava, Renu Deswal and Neera Bhalla-Sarin 2006. Glyoxalase II from salt tolerant cell lines of Arachis hypogaea L. variety JL-24, mRNA partial cds. Accession no. DQ491077

  6. Divya Shrivastava and Neera Bhalla-Sarin 2006. Superoxide dismutase from salt tolerant cell lines of Arachis hypogaea L. variety JL-24, complete cds. Accession no. DQ499511

  7. DebRoy, S., Saxena, M. and Bhalla-Sarin, N. 2006. Brassica juncea cultivar Varuna LEAFY transcription factor mRNA, complete cds. Accession no. DQ471932

  8. Jain S., Renu Deswal  and Sarin N.B. 2006. Arachis hypogaea Pathogenesis related  protein  10 mRNA, complete cds DQ813661.

  9. Yusuf,M.A. and Bhalla-Sarin,N. 2006. Brassica juncea gamma-tocopherol methyl transferase mRNA, complete cds. DQ864978

  10. Deb Roy S., Saxena M., Bhalla-Sarin N(2006) Brassica juncea CONSTANS- like1protein mRNA, complete cds Accession No. DQ534066.

  11. Divya Shrivastava, M.K. Reddy and Neera Bhalla-Sarin 2006. Cytosolic ascorbate peroxidase from salt tolerant cell lines of Arachis hypogaea, complete cds. Accession no. EF 165068

ARTICLES:

  1. Neera Bhalla –Sarin, 1985  “Isolation and culture of protoplasts” “Genetic Manipulations of Plant Protoplasts” Manual: D.S.T. workshop organized in J.N.U.

  2. Manohara, M.S. and Neera Bhalla-Sarin, 1990. Use of Western Blotting Technique for Development and Evolutionary Studies. Bulletin of the Biotechnology Discussion Group, Udaipur. Vol.1, No.2.

  3. Neera Bhalla-Sarin  2002 Role of Women in Biotechnology Innovations and IPR. In: Conference of Women Scientists and Technologist: Role in National Development pp: 157-159. DBT Publication.

  4. Vinod Varshney and Neera Bhalla-Sarin, 2002. “Khatre Ki Baat Uthakar Nai Technology Se Munh Morna Anuchit” (Article in vernacular published on the edit page in the local Hindi daily, “Hindustan” pp.6).

  5. Vinod Varshney and Neera Bhalla-Sarin 2002, “Vivad Mein Ghasita Jaa Raha Hai Romanchkari Biotech” (Article in vernacular published in the local Hindi daily, “ Hindustan” pp.6.

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