PAYAL SANADHYA
Current Research Project
I am currently working as Program Associate at the University of Arkansas with Dr. Joanna (Asia) Kud. Our lab focuses on PPNs posing the greatest risk to Arkansas agriculture, including soybean cyst nematode (Heterodera glycines, SCN), southern root-knot nematode (Meloidgyne incognita, RKN), and reniform nematode (Rotylenchulus reniformis, RN). The research program in our lab revolves around molecular and applied nematology including effector biology, nematode adaptation mechanism, host resistance and biochemical plant-nematode interactions.
Parasitic nematodes pierce the plants cells, extract nutrients and inject molecules known as Effectors. These effectors manipulate important host molecular components/pathways pertaining to host metabolism, physiology, development, and immunity to facilitate parasitism. Despite numerous studies on identification and functional validation of effectors, most effectors are unknown.
01
Characterization of Cyst nematode effectors
(A) Sub cellular localization
(B) Fluorescent in-situ hybridization
(C) Co-IP assays for identification of interacting partners
(D) Generate RNAi or overexpression lines to determine effector’s role in nematode parasitism.
02
Soybean Hairy roots for Effector Characterization
Transgenic hairy roots is a useful methodology for functional characterization of candidate genes in soybeans, particularly those involved in the SCN parasitism.
03
Confocal Microscopy for studying nematode parasitism
Confocal microscopy is a very useful tool for visualization of nematode feeding structures such as Giant cells (RKN) and syncytium (BCN). The semithin images of galls from RKN has been combined with image analysis software to perform the three-dimensional reconstruction and volume measurements of GCs in Arabidopsis without previous embedding or hand sectioning. In addition, the inner cells and/or tissues of thick dense structures of the plant-nematode interaction such as syncytia, egg masses and cysts, can be easily studied.
04
Maintenance of Nematode cultures and nematode bioassays
Maintenance of different nematode pure cultures in green house
Different nematode bioassays in green house and lab to study the resistance of different PI lines or transgenic plants
