Dr. Kiran A.G.

Dr. Kiran A. G. completed his B.Sc. in Agriculture from College of Agriculture, Padannakkad and M.Sc in Biotechnology from Agriculture college and Research Institute, Coimbatore. He obtained his Ph.D. from Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology, Thiruvananthapuram. His main research interest include molecular host response of Zingiber spp. to Pythium myriotylum, Improvement of flavonoid content in popular white rice cultivars and Nitrogen use efficiency improvement in rice.

Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=r6CSyb4AAAAJ&hl=en

ORCID:  https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9875-1253

Awards received

• Junior and Senior Research Fellowship from Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) to pursue Ph.D. from 2008 to 2013
• Qualified National Eligibility Test (for lectureship/Assistant Professorship) in Plant Biotechnology conducted by ASRB/ICAR in 2011 and Life Science conducted by CSIR in 2004.

Projects

Elucidation of antioxidant activity in medicinal rice varieties and bioprospecting for potential    bioactive compounds (State Plan Funding; Duration : 3 years)

Membership in professional bodies

Life Member, Kerala Academy of Sciences

Selected Publications

1. Jose, E., Soni, K.B., Alex, S., Pillai, S., Jayalekshmy, V.G., Stephen, R., Kiran, A.G. and Dongare, M.D., 2023. Productivity and nitrogen use efficiency of rice under conventional and organic nutrition. Environment Conservation Journal, 24(4), pp.231-240.
2. Amala Benny, Swapna Alex, K.B. Soni, K.N. Anith, A.G. Kiran, M.M. Viji. 2022. Improved transformation of Agrobacterium assisted by silver nanoparticles. BioTechnologia vol. 103(3) ∙ pp. 311–317
3. Alex, T.E., Nath, V.S., Varghese, L., Kiran, A.G., Augustine, L., Ramaswamy, V.M. and Thomas, G., 2022. Transcriptome-wide identification and transcriptional profiling reveal remarkable expression modulation of redox genes in Zingiber zerumbet against Pythium myriotylum. Physiological and Molecular Plant Pathology,   121 : p.101885.
4. Stephen, K., Beena, R., Kiran, A.G., Shanija, S. and Saravanan, R., 2022. Changes in physiological traits and expression of key genes involved in sugar signaling pathway in rice under high temperature stress. 3 Biotech, 12(9), pp.1-17.  
5. N. Rajkumari, S. Alex, Soni K. B., Anith K. N., Viji M. M., Kiran A. G. 2021. Silver nanoparticles for biolistic transformation of Nicotiana tabacum L.. 3 Biotech, 11:497 
6. Vishnu, G. M., Swapna, A., Soni, K. B., Kiran, A. G., Krishnan, G. A. and Shanas, S. 2020. Molecular phylogeny of south Indian Aphthona species (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Galerucinae: Alticini) with evidence for colour polymorphism. Entomon, 45(1): 1-6
7. Nagamani, G., Alex, S., Soni, K.B., Anith, K.N., Viji, M.M. and Kiran, A.G., 2019. A novel approach for increasing transformation efficiency in E. coli DH5α cells using silver nanoparticles. 3 Biotech, 9(3), p.113.
8. Kiran, A.G., Koyyappurath, S., Augustine, L. and Thomas, G., 2019. Transcriptional analysis and histochemistry reveal a dominant role for cell wall signaling in mediating Pythium myriotylum resistance in Zingiber zerumbet. Physiological and Molecular Plant Pathology, 106, pp.7-15.
9. Nath, V.S., Koyyappurath, S., Alex, T.E., Kiran, A.G., Augustine, L., Nasser, A. and Thomas, G., 2019. Transcriptome-based mining and expression profiling of Pythium responsive transcription factors in Zingiber sp. Functional & integrative genomics, 19(2), pp.249-264.
10. Thomas, G.E., Kiran, A.G., Augustine, L., Mamiyil, S. and Thomas, G., 2016. Analyses between reproductive behavior, genetic diversity and Pythium responsiveness in Zingiber spp. reveal an adaptive significance for hemiclonality. Frontiers in plant science, 7, p.1913.
11. Aswati Nair, R., Kiran, A.G., Sivakumar, K. C. and Thomas, G. (2010), Molecular characterization of an oomycete- responsive PR-5 protein gene from Zingiber zerumbet. Plant Mol.Biol.Rep. 28 (1): 128 – 135.
12. Kavitha, P. G., Kiran, A.G., Dinesh Raj, R., Sabu, M. and Thomas, G. (2010), Amplified fragment length polymorphism analyses unravel a striking difference in the intraspecific genetic diversity of four species of genus Zingiber Boehm. Current Science. 98(2): 242- 247.
13. Dinesh Raj, R., Kiran, A.G. and Thomas, G. (2010), Population genetic structure and conservation priorities of Oryza rufipogon Griff. Populations in Kerala, India. Current Science. 98 (1): 65 – 68.