Home Page of  Dr. Anjan K. Banerjee


Anjan K. Banerjee
Assistant Professor, Biology
E-mail : akb@iiserpune.ac.in, akbanerjee06@gmail.com
Phone(O)  : +91- 020- 25908057
Fax (O)     : +91-020-25899790

OFFICE :
              SAI TRINITY BUILDING
              3rd Floor, Room No. 304
              SUTARWADI, PASHAN
              PUNE - 411021. (MAHARASHTRA)
              INDIA

Education:

B.Sc. & M.Sc., Tripura University, Agartala, Tripura.
Ph.D. University of Pune, Research work done at National Chemical Laboratory (NCL), Pune. 

Postdoctoral Research:
Plant Transformation Facility, Agronomy Hall, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, USA (2001-2002). 
Plant Molecular Genetics, Hort Hall, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, USA. (2002-2008). 

Present Position: Assistant Professor, Biology, IISER Pune, w.e.f. July 2008. I am involved in both teaching and research.  

Teaching:       

                    Plant Biology I (Spring semester),
                    Plant Biology II (Fall semester),
                    Advanced Cell Biology (Fall semester).  

Lab Members:

Ameya Mahajan,  PhD student,
 e-mail: a.mahajan@iiserpune.ac.in
Sneha Bhogale, PhD Student,
e-mail: sneha.bhogale@iiserpune.ac.in
Suyog Kuwar, M.Tech. Student (IBB)
e-mail:suyogkuwar@gmail.com		 Ajay Subramaniam
(Undergrad project trainee)
Research Interests:
                Plant developmental biology
                Macromolecular transport and distance signaling.
                Crop improvement through genetic transformation for agriculture and industrial use.

Homeobox genes and plant development:   

Homeobox genes, encoding a family of transcription factors, are highly conserved in animals, plants, and yeast and have been implicated in the control of cell fate and development. BEL1-like transcription factors (a class of homeobox genes) are ubiquitous in plants and interact with KNOTTED1- types to regulate numerous developmental processes. In potato, the BEL1-like transcription factor, StBEL5, and its Knox protein partner (POTH1- Potato homeobox I) regulate tuber formation by targeting genes that control growth and development. We are interested to characterize this group of TFs and their cross talk mechanism in tuberization pathway.

Macromolecular Transport and long distance signaling:

In higher plants, the vascular system provides both mechanical strength and long-distance transport capacity. The phloem, one of the major component of vascular tissues, distributes photo-assimilates from source to sink tissues. Recent evidence suggests that, phloem is not merely a nutrient conduit, but also functions as 'information superhighway'. In addition to carbohydrates, phloem also transports hormones, mRNAs, small RNAs and RNA/protein complexes (RNPs) that has been implicated and may mediate developmental and stress responses in plants. Macromolecular transport and long distance signaling is an emerging area of research in plant vascular biology not only from the developmental biology point of view, also in understanding signaling mechanisms in response to various environmental cues, disease, pathogens and other stress etc.

Value addition by transgenic approach and conservation through plant tissue culture:

A third area of our research interest is to identify value added crops, medicinal and/or endangered plants to develop highly efficient regeneration protocol for propagation/conservation purpose as well as to establish genetic transformation technique to develop valued added transgenic plants by Agrobacterium- or Biolistics/Gene gun mediated transformation.


  1. Banerjee A.K., Lin T & David J. Hannapel (2009) Untranslated regions of a mobile transcript mediate RNA metabolism Plant Physiology, Sep 25. [Epub ahead of print]    
  2. Chatterjee M, Banerjee A.K & David J. Hannapel (2007) A BELL-1 like gene of Potato is light activated and wound inducible. Plant Physiology, 145, 1435-1443.
  3. Banerjee A.K, Chatterjee M, Yu Y.Y, Suh S, Miller W.A & David J. Hannapel (2006) Dynamics of a mobile RNA of potato involved in a long distance signaling pathway. Plant Cell 18: 3443-3457.
  4. Banerjee A.K, Salome Prat and Hannapel DJ (2006) Efficient production of transgenic potato S. tuberosum L.ssp andigena) plants via Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation. Plant Science, 170, 4, 732-738.
  5. Hannapel, D.J and Banerjee, A.K. (2005) Mobile RNA acts as a signal to regulate plant growth and development (U.S. Patent No. 7,579,150).
  6. Chen, H., Banerjee, A. K and Hannapel, D. J. (2004). The interaction of TALE transcription factors mediates transcriptional repression of their target gene. Plant Journal, 38, 276-284.
  7. Hannapel, D. J., Chen, H., Rosin, F.M., Banerjee, A.K and Davies, P.J. 2004. Molecular controls of tuberization. American J. of Potato Res. 81, 5-16.
  8. Margie M. Paz, Huixia Shou, Zibiao Guo, Zhanyuan Zhang, Anjan K. Banerjee and Kan Wang (2004) Assessment of conditions affecting Agrobacterium-mediated soybean transformation using cotyledonary node explant, Euphytica 136, pp 167-179.
  9. Banerjee A. K, Agrawal D.C, Nalawade S. M and K. V Krishnamurthy (2002) Transient gene expression of β-glucoronidase (GUS) in embryo axes of Cotton (G.hirsutum L.) by Agrobacterium and Particle Bombardment methods. Biologia Plantarum. Vol. 45 (3) 359-365.
  10. Banerjee A. K, Agrawal D. C, Nalawade S. M and K. V Krishnamurthy (2000) Recovery of In vitro cotton shoots through micro-grafting. Current Sci. 78 (5) 623-626.
  11. Hazra S, Kulkarni A. V, Nalawade S. M, Banerjee A. K, Agrawal D.C and K. V. Krishnamurthy (2000) Influence of the explants, genotypes and the culture vessel on sprouting and proliferation of pre-existing meristems of Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L. and Gossypium arboretum L.). In Vitro Cell and Dev. Biology 36 (6) 505-510.
  12. Agrawal D. C, Banerjee A. K, Kolala R. R, Dhage A. B, Kulkarni A. V, Nalawade S. M, Hazra S and K. V. Krishnamurthy (1997) In vitro induction of multiple shoots and plant regeneration in cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L). Plant Cell Reports 16: 647-651.